Nigel Stanford – ‘Cymatics’ [Review]
TMMP is all about boundary-breaking – and the video for ambient musician Nigel Stanford’s Cymatics definitely fits the bill. Whereas many electronic artists settle for stuffing their videos full of barely-dressed women and fully-clothed dudes posing somewhere in the background, Stanford’s team have taken a very literal approach to the visuals for Cymatics. Read more…


Outside Brighton’s favourite seafront venue, the wind is whipping up white waves that crash heavily into the shoreline. Inside, the air is moving even more violently as Idiom tear through a barnstorming set, followed in short order by Heart Of A Coward‘s crushing djent-fuelled brutality. Both bands deserve their dues for effortlessly eliciting manic reactions from a crowd set on saving their energy for the headliners.
Now is a very exciting time for live electronica legends Submotion Orchestra, with their latest long-playing opus Alium (
What do you get if you cross Brandon Boyd’s lyricism, an idiosyncratic yet familiarly contemporary male pop vocal, a touch of Biffy Clyro’s more commercially-oriented song structures, and a little Jon Gomm-esque acoustic work? Well…this. Into Color manage to take so many disparate parts and fuse them into something appealing in a pop sense, yet sufficiently inventive to attract the praise of the most hard-bitten muso. Once again, they deserve massive respect for another solid step in the right – and a fresh and exciting – new direction.
Amid endless seas of wannabes trapped in a quicksand composed of hollow and lifeless MIDI sequences, Submotion Orchestra have long stood out by a fair few light years. Their recordings consistently ooze warmth and a vital humanity – and Alium continues this trend in impressive and impactful fashion.
To say that I was looking forward to this show would be an understatement. Long-time TMMP followers will have already seen me wax lyrical about this Southampton-based math-pop quartet – but until this night, I’d not ticked off the final – and most important – box on the ‘Band To Watch’ checklist: The Live Show. No matter how good a band sounds on record, if they suck live it’s going to be tough to justify really getting behind them.
Off-kilter electronica, bottomless grooves, elegantly plaintive vocals, soul-based yet uniquely emotive vibes – Trust/Lust is a prime Submotion Orchestra cut backed up by the sparsely luscious Swan Song. Together, these tracks combine to form a perfect teaser package that drops on November 17th, one week ahead of third Submotion Orchestra LP Alium.
This EP is aptly titled. If you’re feeling starved of intense and immense prog-fusion brilliance, then you should do two things: Read more TMMP, and check out CHON. They’ll seduce you effortlessly with opening acoustic-centric track Super Potion, and leave you wondering what the fuck just happened by the time Knot is finished. Not bad for just two tunes.
Although I’m a huge fan of Project RnL, and TMMP is all about negating musical boundaries, my first reaction to Expiration Date was something along the lines of “Just what the hell is this?!”