9. Black Meteoric StarBlack Meteoric Star
This record and the Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russom album (The Days of Mars) changed the way I thought about the instrumentation I use. I hadn’t been particularly into the more straight-up kind of dance music before but Russom is such an interesting fella. He obviously uses a lot of modular instrumentation, he builds synthesisers for so many musicians. I know that Bjorn from Black Dice has a synthesiser that he bought from Russom and plays his guitar through, it’s pretty cool.
Black Meteoric Star definitely challenged the way I look at synth music, beforehand I hadn’t really considered that more modular-based stuff, but what really attracted me here was the last track, ‘Dreamcatcher’. It’s so subtle in its lifts, there’s a real underlying melancholy but it’s so very beautiful. If you look at the actual components there aren’t many, maybe five or six, and it creates such a delicate dynamic.
The first time I ever heard this was when HTRK were on tour with Fuck Buttons and Nigel [Yang] put it on in the van; it blew me away. I also really love The Days of Mars; I was going to say it’s a little less club-friendly, but that’s not quite true. But the Black Meteoric Star is a little harder, more for the dancefloor.
