Shackleton — The Scandal of Time

I remember Shackleton's skeletal tribal halftime beats from back in 2008-2010, associated with the dubstep scene at the time by the press even though the actual sound of the music was closer to something like Muslimgauze, containing no wobbles or hip hop influence, indeed virtually no synth at all, comprised almost solely of layers of drums.

With his new album, The Scandal of Time, it would appear he's somewhat kept to his original rhythmic formulae while deepening the atmosphere and sound design to create a lush, cinematic ambient space with more fullness and tonality than before.  The dubby sub basslines dance nimbly in quasi-melodic arpeggiations in counterpoint to the gothic alto of the female vocalist on the first track, "Eine Dunkle Wolke".  She is singing a circular tune which could be some kind of historic folk melody, and pushed somewhat back in the mix, it provides a subtle tuneful accent to the pulse of the track.

Vocals appear in three of the seven tracks, all by Anna Gerth.  As there were no vocals (or live recordings of any kind) in his older music, which was rather sequenced and rigid sounding, this is a surprise, but turns out to be a welcome and fitting addition.  Creating an organic, atmospheric tone that is more specifically esoteric and gothic makes for a richer experience than his old work, which was sometimes minimal and robotic to a fault, and left my attention wandering.

This matches well with the album cover, which has a cryptic handpainted style one might expect from Swans or a ritual ambient group rather than a dubstep artist.  That said, the album is not necessarily dark, indeed it is more melodic form of dub than I ever would have expected from Shackleton, but retains a mysterious and primitive atmosphere.  The use of mallet instruments and semi-tonal hand percussion in full colour three-dimensional sound design reminds me of Robert Rich albums like Rainforest, Bestiary or Seven Veils

In the past decade, Shackleton has truly ascended into a mature, intelligent ambient style.  This album is a magnificent work of tribal ambient / downtempo and miles ahead of what I ever dreamed to hear from him.  With this album, he reaches the pantheon of my favorite ambient musicians. To find out more