Recompas main man Travis Thatcher gave me a copy of his first album forFlorida’s Nophi label months ago, but I’m ashamed to admit that thedisc sat at the bottom of a bag and then the bottom of a stack on mydesk until just now. I’m glad that I finally dug it up as it’s quicklyfound a place in my year-end “best of” list.
As the host of an electronic music show on Georgia Tech’s student-runradio station and a Tech grad himself, Thatcher’s music geekcredentials precede him. I expected his record to be something like ahighly technical filter of his influences, built around some insanelycomplex homebrewed software or gadgets that he had engineered—somethingfidgety and maybe overly ambitious. Instead, the process behind Definitionis nice and transparent, and the execution is nearly flawless. As I spinthe record more and more, I find myself transfixed with the soundscoming from the speaker rather than absorbed in the workshop-likefascination with how he’s pulled it all together.
The Recompas (sometimes spelled re com pas) sound is adub-tickled, low tempo collage of processed beats, synth melodies, andscrap bits of noise that sound roughly familiar but don’t identify withany particular scene. What I love most about Thatcher’s work is thatit’s dirty as hell, with loops that are scraped across gravel, beatento death, and then full of artifacts and wandering hints of noise thatfill up the space perfectly. Recompas plays with some primitive synthsounds that echo '70s BBC sci fi music and game melodies, but theresult never sounds like a throwback or rehash. That by itself is ahuge accomplishment.
But my admiration of what Recompas has pulled off here extendsmostly from the emotional weight and depth of sound he’s managed towrangle. “Bruxism” bristles with a lurking dread and disembodiedsaxophone married with a skittery beat evoking the best of the dubterror heyday, while “Pupal,” works a Tron-like melody and some choice,dead slow percussion to great effect. “Appypolyologies” takes awonderful melody and builds it up with dubby bass and scattershot drumprogramming creating a track that aches as it moves. The record isconfident and accomplished, intricate and banging at the same time, andit finishes off with a trio of remixes from r_garcia, Tricil, andRetconned that are all solid and varied, with plenty of Recompas’personality still in tact.
What’s most exciting about Definition is that Thatcher has laid out a firm foundation for hissound, and he’s announced his presence loudly. While the record hintsat stuff that might be found on Skam and Sub Rosa, it is ultimately allRecompas: twisted, distorted, and cobbled together in a way that is aseffective as it is unique. I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see a morewell known label license this record from Nophi for a larger release,and frankly it deserves as many ears as it can find. Unless half adozen shocking masterpieces drop out of the sky in the next 30 days,this record’s definitely won a spot in my personal top 10 for the year,and with any luck it will speak to many others the way it has spoken tome.
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