Pearson Sound

dubstep/bass music/left-field minimalist percussive machine funk

The usual from David Kennedy’s Pearson Sound alias. Which is to say: weird stuff built primarily out of drum machines and effects, super funky, with little in the way of traditional melody but lots of atmosphere from all the processing and tuned percussion. A concise, cohesive, excellent debut album after years of good to excellent singles and EPs (and the co-founding/-running of one of the best labels in electronic music in the last decade, IMO).

RIYL: Ramadanman/Pearson Sound, Pangaea, Untold, Hessle and Hemlock in general, rhythm, drum machines, echo and reverb

1. broken dubbed out rave stabs, menacing booming kicks, and a really ticky hi-hat that can’t decide how fast it wants to go. crashing run of cymbals in the second half, slowly rising dark synth pad in background towards the end. dissolves into bass rumbles and fog and malfunctioning machines. 4:45
2. something like the first part of a record scratch sound interspersed with rapid halting snares, echo on everything. funky hi-hat and swaggering kick enter. insistent cymbal enters around 1:45. you finally get just a little bit of slowly rising moog type synth around halfway, the first melody at all, even though it’s been really lush so far just from the reverb. drums wind down and a bassline enters for a couple bars w/ about 1:00 left, but drums quickly tag back in. strutting oddball dubstep slowed to a techno tempo. 5:06
3. drum stutters into place, frequency increasing till it’s a blurry low machine hum, ghostly moog like synth line floats in, followed by electric crackle. slowly rises in intensity. low metallic whine fades in just after 1:30. slightly loud/abrasive filter coats the high frequencies in the second half, transmitter noises join in. things start to fade out with 0:45 left, machine hum bass line slows back to discrete drum briefly before leaving entirely, evaporates in fog. 4:19
4. funky bouncy heavy hand drum, joined by steady not quite 4/4 kick and swirling distorted high synth line. strips down a bit around 1:15, a touch of echo briefly, then it gets dry and things pick up again, then the echo comes back and the EQ melts the synth line a little. snares start snapping around and the synth gets even woozier in the middle. a low smeared phone ring, some breathing way in back, beat drops out and comes back. 5:03
5. halting indecisive kick roll, glassy synth shards, tense synth wash, haunting manipulated vocal fragments. beat winds down and comes slowly swirling back around 1:15, can’t quite get a foothold then takes off around 1:45, with only a couple more stumbles. like a robot that’s almost but not quite working correctly. 3:47
6. tense synthy steel drum plunks, steady reverbed metallic tick fades in and out, intermittent descending motor whine. huge kick slowly fades up, has slow gallop that morphs a bit over the course of the song. slow steady cymbal enters just before halfway, and a couple subtle high synth lines wind around in the background. drums drop out briefly in second half, fuzz gets added to the main steel drum sound. slow chimes towards the end, fades out on that and some beeps and echoes. 3:47
7. slowly rising synth screech cuts off and gets replaced just as it becomes unbearable, by heavy slow break. filtered synth moans and bass shivers float in, followed later by a quiet undulating high pitched synth whine and some woodblocks. creepy foreboding breakdown before 2:00 and again later a couple times, drums fall away and come back slowly, leave for good a ways before the end. creepy foreboding atmosphere that’d make shackleton smirk. 5:40
8. steady pulsing but not 4/4 kick, gets really heavy and a little reverby. ticky woodblock gets added, steady cymbal, bits of snare. synth washes slowly get folded into the mix. second synth wash rises up before midpoint. low key but insistent, never gets to charging ahead (except for briefly near the end), but sustains a steady momentum that brings things back up after #7. great 2 am stuff, an upbeat one for the chillout room, or a breather for the main floor. 4:58
9. cracking hard to identify synth percussion joined by bouncy drum machine snare and bashed out reverby cymbal. gets funky and intricate around 1:00, nothing melodic but plenty of atmosphere to fill in the cracks between the drums. chills out a little and gets way more reverb just after the second half, then dissolves into metallic groans and cries for the last minute, ends on high whine and closing beep. opens harsh, gets funky, gets weird, closes harsh. 4:49

recommended: 2, 6, 3, 8, any