Tri Angle Records signing Balam Acab delivers his own brand of muddy glitz at Green Door Store on Friday, to be consumed headily and unsteadily.
For some indication of Balam Acab’s sound you can simply refer to his soundcloud tags, where he labels tracks as ‘4AM ONLY’, ‘PRETTY SWAMP MURK’ and ‘STOMACH BUBBLE FAKE TRAP’. Bewildering but telling of Balam Acab’s (and that of many artists on Tri Angle) diverse and often opaque reference points. His tracks disparately slow down languid hip hop and r&b to a crawling growl, peppering them with glitzy chimes and faraway beats in the vein of an even more tripped out Clams Casino, or ebb and flow softly with trickling vocal pops, harps and hazy melodies, a la How To Dress Well or Holy Other at his brightest.
The fact that the most obvious comparisons lead to Balam Acab’s labelmates is a testament to the cornerstone aesthetic of Tri Angle records, a distinct set of recipes combining the ethereal, sensual and unsettling. But it would be unfair to place this producer on the same sliding scale, as his works drift much further apart on what might be better thought of as the same sonic matrix as the rest of the label. Often more ambient but equally as often laden with far more glitter and enthused lucidity, Balam Acab and his live show offer up a singular example of forward thinking electronica with all of the benchmarks of intelligent influence; a hazy but gripping sonic blanket for the label fan or otherwise.
£7 adv, 19:30-22:30.
For more information visit www.thegreendoorstore.co.uk
