The world's greatest print and online music magazine. Independent since 1982

Audio
Subscribe

Donate now to help The Wire stay independent

Below The Radar 20

Track 4

"Retort"

Previously unreleased

Graham Dunning is a London-based sound artist and musican. His new project uses a method that he calls the "mechanical techno technique". Talking of this technique, he explains:

"I made this track using what I call the Mechanical Techno technique: Several looping records spin on the same axle which ensures they stay approximately in time with each other. I layer up looping white labels, audio triggers to analogue synths, mechanically played percussion and physically triggered drum machines. Lee Scratch Perry described Dub as “the ghost in me coming out,” I perform a live dub on the clunky, home-made contraption to release the ghost in the machine. Each set-up is unique: the composing of the track is in the building of the machine. The technique is inherently clumsy and delicate, leading to frequent and multiple mistakes and accidents. These chance elements and unpredictable aspects lead to compositions I would never think to deliberately make.

This track is one of the first compositions I made with this method, titled for the retort stands, which I'd newly acquired at the time, used to hold the drum triggers, now a permanent part of the set up."

grahamdunning.com

Download