There’s an Archie Shepp record from the mid-’60s called Fire Music. It’s a sprawling, odd album; there are moments in which it has all the hallmarks of free improv – and yet it all sits within a strict, bebop-esque framework.
‘Fire Music’, from patten‘s forthcoming debut album, is similar in more than just name. Like much of the rest of the record it is a strange combination of rhythmic stricture and unabashed freak-out, like the song is physically trying to escape itself. There is so much going on here, so many reference points, from Detroit tech to pastoral, drugged-up English electronica; from Laurent Garnier to Luke Abbott. Exhaustingly brilliant.
patten’s GLAQJO XAACSSO is out 26 September on No Pain In Pop.
patten – Fire Dream by The Line Of Best Fit
Sign up to Best Fit's Substack for regular dispatches from the world of pop culture