Slomo/VA — Super-Individual: Collective Ritual

In January 2017 Slomo, the Yorkshire duo of Holy McGrail and Howard Marsden finally released their fourth album Transits. A shimmering, ambient, psychedelic happening that thrilled and delighted fans of the band. Over a year on from that and the band released Super-Individual: Collective Ritual, a collection of 12 remixes of the track Super-Individual by a varied and interesting selection of artists hand-picked by the band to remix this epic twenty-three-minute slice of electronic drone. They chose a diverse array of talent for the purpose, from Teleplasmiste, to Gnod, and Andrew Liles to Teeth of the Sea, each has deconstructed the ambient cosmic drone of Super-Individual, rebuilding it in their own style. The twelve tracks are spread across two discs and vary in length from a mere four minutes (Teeth of the Sea) all the way up to the epic twenty four minutes of Gnod’s remix.

Disc one opens with the epic zKiii taking first stab at it. This one is quite chaotic in that there is a lot more going on than there was in the original, but it still feels quite ordered and organised. Harsher sounding than the original this is one of the more intense sounding tracks on the album, yet it still somehow manages to retain an almost ambient atmosphere. The Northern remix is next and takes thing back down several notches before picking up the pace again and adding drumbeats for the final few minutes. One of my personal favourites is next, Mark Pilkington and Michael Yorke’s Teleplasmiste. Ambient with a real warmth about it, this one has a gentle ebb and flow to it that becomes quite hypnotic at times. One can easily get lost in the myriad of layers bubbling just below the surface. Finnish psychedelic post-metallers Mr Peter Hayden are up next. Their interpretation is quite a departure for a band whose music is largely based on the classic space rock setup of guitar, bass, drums and synths. Their remix features industrial tinged machine noise, mixed with ambient drones to create something quite unique and challenging for fans of the band. Higher Intelligence take things in yet another direction, what is largely a dance-oriented track featuring stabbing synth lines rarely moves above a crawl. Almost as if it were slowed down. The first disc comes to an end with the CP remix, an up-tempo number with techno roots and some lovely John Carpenter-esque synth lines.

Disc two opens with Gnod, a slow building behemoth of a track, built around a drone that drifts in and out and synth line that replicates the sound of the drip of water. Minimalist and low key the drone weaves its way in and out across the track’s epic length before finally settling on a dark ambient tone. Andrew Liles is up next, and he completely reconstructs the original Slomo track. Jagged rock guitars and a hard rock drumbeat dominate throughout the tracks opening segment before it breaks down into something much more ambient midway through before the track rebuilds as an electronic folk piece with an Eastern European flavour, fascinating stuff. Teeth of the Sea are up next with their own brand of dark ambient, this one is short and sweet and flows really well, and is among my favourites on the album. Urthona’s sprawling fourteen minute epic follows, a monolithic slab of glacially paced dark ambient, and another favourite of mine.  This leads us on to the penultimate track, Simon Pyke’s adaption. After a noisy opening, this one gives way to a more ambient experience. A glorious combination of psychedelic electronics ties it to the sound of the original Slomo version, thus creating a connection between the two realms. The album is brought to a close by The Ambient Working Men’s Club. This is a really interesting interpretation of the track that evokes images of hauntings and seances. Another of my favourites, this haunted ambient piece perfectly brings the album to a close with a hint of darkness, something that feels most appropriate for a Slomo album as I’ve always felt they’d be an excellent choice to score a horror movie.

Overall this is a pretty interesting concept, the various interpretations are really diverse and to say there is something for everyone is really most appropriate when discussing this album. The standouts for me are Teleplasmiste, CP, Andrew Liles, Urthona and The Ambient Working Men’s Club, however the whole album is very enjoyable. Several tracks stay true to Slomo’s original ambient roots, however when the album does veer away from that it is done with style and conviction by some very talented artists who have reimagined the music of Slomo in their own inimitable way, and I for one am very glad of it.