Entrancer - Decline Vol. I [OF017]

The first eight pieces of Decline directly reflect a state of turmoil – political, social, environmental and otherwise – but both the title and the work itself also elicit suspension; a state of floating then being caught, whether consensually or perturbingly, by something beyond our control. In the liner notes Ryan McRyhew describes Decline Vol. I as “ambient protest music,” which although evoking the above states also speaks to emotional and psychological dialogues of distress, dissonance and quietude – between our inner-self, inner-selves and inner-community – where a protest of loss and continuing on prospers.

Perhaps because I’ve read K Punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher (Repeater, 2018) alongside listening, thinking about and assembling the Decline Vol. I cassette, I have recognised themes of loss in Entrancer's latest, whereas others may find strikingly dissimilar representations. It's that kind of work. It pulls you closer to your own thoughts and the shapes you are already forming: furniture music not of your physical surroundings, but rather of your psyche. 

Decline Vol. I motions further afield from Entrancer's (formerly Thug Entrancer) acid-soaked daisy-chains of locking and unlocking rhythms and melodies. No Borders (2017), the first Obsolete Future tape as Entrancer, feels like the Decline Series’ obvious predecessor; yet here textural and environmental sonics begin to really burrow away from McRyhew’s previous endeavours. Experiments with field recordings (which can be the death of an artist) stream naturally and beautifully into a palette of modular synthesis and sequencers. These recordings play into the textural quality of the work in a departure from both Entrancer's earlier releases as Thug Entrancer and No Borders; sometimes coalescing into grainy layers, at other times slow wet currents.  

Although recorded in the summer, in dichotomic fashion Decline Vol. I is a winter record – hence its release just weeks shy of the sun’s most diminished presence across the Northern Hemisphere.  

I would like to extend special thanks to Good Press in Glasgow for the Risograph printed j-cards. Decline Vol. I comes as a super ferric C51. Limited to 50 copies.

Track List: