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( Entropy / Vitamin )
It’s unusual to retrospectively review an album more than two years old, but in the case of Sydney’s Entropic this recording is as fresh now as it would have been then… and still accounts for a significant slab of the band’s repertoire. I was checking myself after writing a gig review and listening to ‘Factory Seconds’ and wondering if I had overstated the band’s interest in deep house but ‘Braille’ puts my mind at ease. Just like it’s successor, it’s full of subtly developing tracks that elevate with their jazz harmonies and shake you with their deep grooves.
The disc begins with ‘Simple Terms’ and sets the tone for the album. The title is an ironic one as Entropic never operate simply… they just make it look that way. The foursome glide effortlessly through some wild musical and percussive relationships here once again with their live instrumental line-up (rhodes, guitar, drums & bass). The album’s title ‘Braille’ fits the disc perfectly too, for the abstraction is suggests, and for the morse-code like percussive tapping and polyrhythms that make the Entropic sound so distinctive.
‘Hardware’ has an ‘exotica meets spy-jazz’ feel that adds to its creepy edge with distant, distorted vocals. It’s a locomotive groove for the first three and a half minutes, before stuttering into a surprise junction. Introduced by a bass slide and vocal call, the beat suddenly thumps and skips in equal measure beneath Conrad Harris’ signature muted guitar picking and Campbell McGuiness’ electric piano chords. Things mellow out eventually, as the first groove resumes and this leg of the journey comes to a close.
Listening to ‘Maurice’s Chair’ provides a clear connection between albums ‘Braille’ and ‘Factory Seconds.’ Starting quite minimally and abstractly, the percussive polyrhythms are there, with faint suggestions of what lies ahead. Three minutes in, you’re wondering what Oliver Smith the bass player has up his sleeve as the other players chase each other in and out of the light pitter-pattering of Robbie Mudrazija on the kit. After four minutes, you suddenly realise that it’s happened… the abstract percussion has woven a beautiful and strange fabric of sound complete with guitar melody and Rhodes harmonies. At seven minutes, the drummer has hit the d’n’b rhythm, but still with jazzy light-handed playing, while Conrad vocalises the band’s love for their listeners. This is as close to smooth jazz as d’n’b can get… and all recorded live by four incredible instrumentalists. This ‘grand tour in a track’ approach is typical of Entropic’s adventurous and brilliant arrangements.
Venturing onward, ‘Slinky’s mood is set by Oli’s simple house bass line. Guitar chucks and sweet warm Rhodes harmonies follow, as the guitar plays perhaps the most obvious melody on the album. It’s great to hear a jazzy house track with such a live feel… as always Robbie’s work behind the kit adds the variety that sequenced tracks in a similar vein often lack.
In similar style to ‘Factory Seconds,’ Braille signs off with a twenty minute epic. ‘House Policy’ begins with a skipping hearbeat and what sounds like a ticking clock or metronome. Instead of building to chimes or a cuckoo, the rhythm becomes punctuated by lone resonating notes, and the sudden awakening of Oli’s delicious upright acoustic bass. Moments later, the band swaps intricate rhythm for lavish harmony and we’re in jazz-house heaven once more. Like scenery passing on a lengthy rail trip, the track shifts slowly and beautifully, with darker moments and the recurring anticipation and release that Entropic continue to explore in their follow-up release.
Entropic are in my mind, a world-class act waiting for the right opportunity to explode. While a similar international act like St Germain can leave me yawning with their recordings, Entropic’s slated work is perfect for deep immersion and infinite listening pleasure. Beside ‘Factory Seconds,’ Entropic have a growing and formidable instrumental repertoire, and I cannot urge you enough to seek out this band and experience their magic for yourself.
