Acid Field Recordings In Dub by Audio Obscura

Neil Stringfellow is Audio Obscura and, for the uninitiated, makes experimental electronic music that errs to the side of comfortably challenging. To clarify, yes, he makes minimal music (like lockdown album Self Isolation Tapes) and neo-Classical (check the fragile piano compositions on The 88th Day of the Year) but that's as close as you'll get to defining Stringfellow's output in simple terms. He aptly describes his music as 'genre-fluid':

Taking in everything from bass to glitch, musique concrète to free jazz, field recordings, dub techno, weird psychedelic synths, kosmische, perhaps even the kitchen sink

Whatever genre you identify though, what's clear is that each of his releases demonstrates a probing mind coupled with a careful attention to the finer details. And when I say finer details, I mean sound recordings:

I've been sound recording for about 12 years now and have a good archive of sounds.. and simply enjoy just listening and capturing the audio world. Over the years I've learned to really listen to the everyday soundscapes and as such I no longer walk down the street listening to a personal stereo, the world can often be more exciting than music.

In light of this, you'll appreciate then that while new album Acid Field Recordings In Dub isn't exactly a companion piece to Om Unit's various Acid Dub studies, the elements of Dub and Acid utilised on tracks like Babyloniacid, with its sputtering drums and languid 84 BPM, and Hollowlands, with Simon McCorry on melodica, establish that unmistakable vibe, even if the prevailing mood remains genre-fluid. This is in large part because of Stringfellow's faith in building out ideas from his samples and field recordings. Inspiration may come from the Dub Reggae snare sound of a street cleaner's bumping broom or the dawn chorus in a local wood walk, but the foundation of his work is his archive of sound recordings; cleverly transforming birdsong into a 303 squelch or dropping a Jamaican vocal snippet into the mix at just the right point. In this context his artist name makes perfect sense.

Like the unhinged work of Babe, Terror, Stringfellow often combines disparate sounds to disorientating effect. For example, on Gravity Fields we go from an ominously overcast summer day soundtracked by Jazz piano notes and sombre orchestral strings, into a parallel world resonating with an Acid-inspired wobbly bass loop. (If his intention was to reflect his drug-induced convalescence, after an operation, then it weirdly works.) The same otherworldly juxtapositions can be heard on Coasting with field recordings, jingling cowbells, dissonant electronic sounds and a mutant Acid refrain. And on The Last Day Of August Felt Like The First Day Of Autumn, the plaintive bleep riddim carries a tormented Dub weight due to the off-kilter strings and kids party in the background. It's all comfortably challenging.

At just 34 minutes, it's a brief dispatch that can pass in an Ambient haze. Or, if you concentrate, you can immerse yourself in the grainy minutiae of life filtered through Stringfellow's sound world.