One of the bald brothers that constitute Orbital described creating their breakthrough single, Chime, along these lines: “We were rushing to get out to the pub, so we quickly arranged the samples and pressed record on the tape deck.”
This quick-we’ve-got-ten-minutes-before-we-meet-Dave-at-the-pub approach paid off, as shortly afterwards, they appeared on Top Of The Pops, standing still behind some keyboards (as was the style at the time).
So, when a band tells me they’re “just messing around with a drum machine”, it’s worth a listen. Pyramid Club are one of these bands, except they have bent to the pressures of our time and plug a laptop in too.
Don’t hold that against them, 90’s House fans: as the results are a tactile combination of crumbly, regimented beats and washes of echo-laden groans.
Crater is, as the choice of equipment would suggest, a curiously satisfying bridge between the pummelling simplicity of early/mid-period house and the more esoteric style that is today’s norm.
It’s not a compromise, but a careful blend, and ends up being a generous swoosh around a crystalline musical netherworld. Pyramid Club should start recording just as they’re rushing to get down the pub and see where it take them.