Darren Cunningham, aka enigmatic producer Actress, has spoken to The Stool Pigeon about his upcoming album R.I.P, as well as revealing that its follow-up, Ghettoville, is slated for release this summer.
"I’m working on it," Cunningham said. "Hopefully I think we’re talking about it being released in July."
Great news for fans of Actress’ music. Where it often arrives in short EP form, each one of his albums so far – 2008’s Hazyville, 2010’s Splazsh and R.I.P, which is released through Honest Jon’s next month, has been a remarkable piece of work, drawing from a wide range of influences while simultaneously disregarding their conventions almost entirely. Look out for more on R.I.P in these pages in the coming weeks.
Cunningham also spoke about the future for his label Werk Discs, home to his own first album as well as stunning works by Lukid and Zomby – whose contribution to the label, the incandescent rave tribute Where Were U In 92?, is apparently to be issued on vinyl to coincide with Record Store Day. Werk has been rather quiet on the releasing front as of late, but Cunningham confirmed that, as well as releasing Ghettoville, the label is working on putting out new Lukid material, as well as music from two unnamed new producers.
He also discussed the break in Werk’s release schedule, saying it was because "(a) we were changing distribution, (b) I was getting caught up in Splazsh, and also for me personally I’d been doing the label by myself for five years, running the label and making music at the same time, so it just felt like the right time just to give it a breather and see what’s going on, see where people’s heads are at… And in that period of time music’s actually changed quite a lot, you’ve got labels like Tri Angle, Hippos In Tanks… It’s interesting when you take step back to view the scene as a whole, and how things are moving. You learn a few lessons."
