Al Hill’s “Prisms”is, if not glacial, then at least what is often referred to as molasses-like in its pacing. Gentle swells of synthesized sound rise up, hold for a piece, and then settle back, leaving discernible gaps — not silences, but deep lulls, when everything is reduced to a baseline tone. It is the hum of general electrical activity. And it is out of that foundational hum that everything else appears, so that even as the various components change from one to the next, they all sound rooted in a singular originating sonic petri dish. So warm is that underlying tone, that you might miss the deliberate nudging of percussive patter, which arrives late in the form of steady, rhythmic glitches.
Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/sundog70. Hill is based in Brighton, Britain.