'Pell mell' means "in mingled confusion or disorder", a prettybefitting title for this unnecessarily full priced (maybe it's due tothe hand made, compressed paper digipak?) mini album. The disc iscomprised of just two tracks, under 20 and over eight minutes apiece,respectively. With these pieces Robin Storey explores contrastingprocesses. "Trace Area" begins with a mild drone loop which is thenaltered on the fly as additional layers are applied and peeled away. Ittakes a good eight minutes for something really interesting to takeshape - a deep, distant, meditational bass pulse jarred by percussiveracket - but it unfortunately regresses soon after. Near the end of thetrack, effected broadcast voices are tacked on as an afterthought.Compared to the bulk of Storey's work as Rapoon, "Trace" is the closestof these two to the "typical" Rapoon sound. "Pulse Codec" is much morerigid as a programmed rhythm provides the framework for electronicsounds. The beat is rather generic and off-putting right from thestart. Pretty stereo panned piano notes bounce around inside the frame,but the damn drum machine relentlessly overpowers everything else,including your concentration. 'Pell Mell' is the most disappointingRapoon disc I've encountered to date. At least half a dozen newStorey/Rapoon releases are on the horizon from Soleilmoon andKlanggalerie, including collaborations with Victor Nubla (Macromassa)and Andy Diey (Black Faction).
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