Primitive Motion — Portrait of An Atmosphere

[A Guide to Saints — 2023]★★★★★

Reviewed 13 March 2023by Colin Lang

Brisbane-based Primitive Motion's latest release feels like a cutting room floor job, taking all of the detritus that might – and that's a special kind of might – lead to something worthwhile and discarding it in favor of a mixture of all of the other parts. What ends up as processed, in the end, if such a euphemism is warranted here, is nothing short of arbitary. And by "arbitrary", I mean it makes no sense, the most disadvantageous use of the tools of the trade: to merely weave something – anything – together and call it an album. The most damning thing that could be said about such music is that it fails to compel, to make you want to embark on whatever sonic journey lies ahead. Maybe those better familiar with Primitive Motion and their work will find something worth returning to, that's anyone's guess.

The "Portraits", as they are called, are placed in numerical order (I–IV), with the final track, "Trenches of Time", capping it all off. According to the group, this is meant to be the stuff of narration, but I think that is an open question, not a decided matter at all. Things, like voice and field recordings, emerge as if without warning, brought in before anything foundational has been laid to presage them. Maybe this is what Primitive Motion is after, I can't say. But the lack of textural basis for the introduction of wildly diverse elements left me puzzled, wishing there had been a way in first, or even at all.

For those who are familiar with the work of this duo, I would say that there is surely something there, or for fans of incredibly subtle and slow-moving abstraction, with the right pinch of field recordings for good measure. To find out more

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