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Main, "Ablation"
Capping off Robert Hampson's impressive return to activity with three recent solo releases on the Editions Mego, he has now officially resurrected the Main moniker, here in partnership with Stephan Mathieu. Ablation is consistent with the recent Hampson solo albums, but feels like a natural extension to the more abstract previous Main material, making for an appropriate new phase in the project's trajectory.
A defining feature of Main for me is how organic it sounded, even if the music contained within seemed completely alien.It was the sound of cells dividing, ice molecules separating, or galaxies expanding.This living, breathing touch was not necessarily missing from the solo material Hampson put out, but felt more obscured overall."I" embraces the natural, with Mathieu's contributions of organ and phonoharp keeping the sound more flesh and blood rather than clinical or detached.
Even more surprising on "I" is the presence of conga-like percussion and some entropy-laden dissonance, the latter resulting in a harsher, more abrasive sound than usual from a Main recording."II" alternates between rising tides of dissonance and cold, disconnected beauty.It results in a dense wall of sound, but one that constantly flows and changes into different forms throughout, logically progressing from one mood to the next.
The second half of the album puts less of an emphasis on the constantly changing and evolving layers of sound, and instead focuses on longer, sustained passages that slowly breathe and develop in a less overt manner."III" mixes things up the most, where cosmic, expansive passages of calm sound are upset by what could only be described as the sound of a runaway freight train cutting right through the mix, tearing the more delicate pieces asunder before they reassemble themselves once again, maintaining some semblance of consistency.
The conclusion stays pegged into the loud and forceful realm, building to a dynamic intensity that rivals the best harsh noise recordings in approach, but is far more nuanced overall."IV" scales things back, filtering more musical textures through crackling static and surging low end swells.With the high frequency beeps and shimmering feedback, it makes for a nice callback to the Firmament series of releases without sounding like an attempt to recreate them.
Robert Hampson has never ceased to amaze me with his work, and while bringing back the Main name was unexpected given his expanding body of work under his given name, the result removes any doubt anyone could have.The solo outings never quite felt totally like the classic Main albums, and I curious how new material would differ being issued so recently after Suspended Cadences and Signaux, but there is a distinctly different feel to Ablation.
Part of this might be his re-embracing of the electric guitar, or the contributions of Stephan Mathieu, a brilliant solo artist in his own right, working in similarly organic realms with different results.Ablation lives up nicely to its expectations, making for a worthy addition to the untouchable Main discography.While it seems less and less likely to happen,I would still love to hear some more of the bass/guitar/vocals skeletal rock material that ended with Neper.Maybe Hampson’s upcoming dates with Godflesh, reprising his role from Pure some two decades ago may spark a new project of this approach, but even if it does not, I am still satisfied with this.
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