Description
Darren Cunningham's eagerly awaited new album is an adventurous, ultramodern, thoroughly British affair, rummaging about in the inner lives of house and techno, and brilliantly elaborating the accomplishments of his debut, Hazyville.
Determinedly off the map and resistant to pigeonholing, Cunningham is an enigmatic and playful figure, citing Francis Bacon and Monet as inspirations alongside Theo Parrish, Anthony 'Shake' Shakir, Daft Punk, 'binary codes and numeral systems', and The Avengers. He's a hard man to pin down somehow a key player in the post dubstep diaspora and yet not there at all but everything comes across in his shape shifting, richly textured music.
The South Londoner's acclaimed debut lived up to its name: a series of dreamlike sketches and ideas. For Splazsh the fog has lifted, the sounds are less submerged than before, but still sticky and close a signature combination of exuberance and introversion, luminescence and puzzlement.
Actress has quickly and justly become one of the most respected names in the UK's new dance music underground. His own label, Werk Discs, has proven itself one of the most formidable and taste making UK independents of recent times, bringing the world extraordinary albums from Zomby, Lukid, Lone and Actress himself. In love with the mysteries of groove and repetition, Splazsh is both a culmination and a new beginning for Actress, a substantial and eccentric work from a brave and coolly individual artist.
With international press interest gathering photo features in Dazed And Confused, and Fader in the US, and a session with Wolfgang Tillmans for the cover of the German magazine Groove - the stage is set for Actress.