The much-anticipated debut from a band soundtracking the capital's future.
Photos: Cole Pemberton | Words: A. L . Noonan
London is a city that has a sound. Not in the sense that it has particular characteristic genres, but in the sense that the city itself emits a certain sonic mood. In a 2007 interview, the enigmatic South London producer Burial speaks about this ineffable quality: 'In London, there's a kind of atmosphere that everyone knows about but if you talk about it, it just sort of disappears.' Burial has made a career attempting to bottle this ethereal, elusive quality, producing music that weaves narratives of post-rave night buses, solitary meandering walks under groaning towers and the momentary glance of a stranger in a crowded thoroughfare. With the release of 'Missed It Just The Once', it is evident that wing! have been passed the loom to thread London's aural tapestry.
wing! is the moniker of Adam Swan, a producer from the further reaches of South East London. Accompanied live by Kai Charlton on bass and Joe Killick on drums, wing! form a ghostly tableau of trip-hop, post-rock and ambient electronica, but to rely on base signifiers is simply unfair and reductive when speaking of the project. Swan's production embodies that mysterious loneliness that urban environments create, with distant vocal samples whispering in alleyways, groaning pads looming above and crisp drum breaks cruising down wide roads. 'Missed It Just The Once', the project's debut EP, delivers this atmosphere in a murky, pensive, but ultimately uplifting package, standing out as one of the year's finest releases.
Jolty, curt snares and kick open the EP on 'Let The Rest Go' before solemn pads and distant, crying vocal samples creep out from beneath as though calling from behind glass. An initially cold opening gives way to a blanket of dubby bass offering solace amidst drum breaks and delayed, raindrop-sparkled synths breaking through the haze. The textural and atmospheric build leans into the post-rock circulatory system breathing life into the project's trip-hop skeleton, more reminiscent of groups like Fridge or Bowery Electric than Massive Attack or Portishead.
These trip-hop bones peek through more readily on 'Out From Outer', the opening drum break a lumbering groove soon adorned by a minimalist, Tricky-influenced bassline. A more abstract approach is evident with Swan's sampling here. Lonesome, wordless vocal calls are consistent but so are whale-like chirps, chattering arpeggios and spasmodic saxophone runs. If we are reading into the title a sense of the cosmic, the delivery of sample manipulation only accentuates that. Heavy delay and reverb is used generously with sonic atoms and particles taking flight, buoyed by planing woodwind breaching the troposphere.
While 'Out From Outer' provides the air and weightlessness to the EP, 'Pack It In' reveals the record's muscle. Weighty breaks are dense with pinging snares and splashy hi-hats while the bass is grimace-inducing and bold. Noisy samples fly past and chaos threatens to take hold before delicate horns, saxophones and synths open the track to a broad clearing of ambient space. A tune that brings to mind driving through the inner-city arteries of the Old Kent Road with the majesty of the Central Business District in your rear-view mirror as you cruise towards the outer boroughs. Easily the EP's most cinematic and accessible selection, 'Pack It In' is a head-bopper par excellence.
Closing out the EP is 'In A Second I Will Need A Second', which is tenderness made whole. Rather than accentuate the body and heft previously built up across the EP, 'In A Second I Will Need A Second' is a gentler and pensive close with jazz-inflected ride cymbals and pattering snares raising guitar lines delayed for eternity and whispers of synths that elevate dancing basslines. To think of the cinematic, 'In A Second I Will Need A Second' is the ultimate end credits soundtrack. Broad and sweeping in its scope but minimal in composition, the track is rousing and heartbreaking in equal measure not unlike Burial's 'Hiders' or the closing movement to 'Shell of Light'.
With 'Missed It Just The Once', Swan has crafted a declarative mission statement for the future of crossover electronic and indie production. Through bolshy breaks and cold sampling wing! evokes the isolation of metropolitan living but at the same time reveals the balm of connection and community within soaring melodies and comforting bass. This inexpressible geographic mystery evades words, but with music, and especially the music of wing!, it comes closer to being grasped. An undeniable triumph, with 'Missed It Just The Once', wing! stake their claim on the true future sound of London.
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