OR - Kangding Ray

Talking about music is like dancing about architecture, or writing about music is like dancing about architecture - the famous quote mutates, and has no clear origin. Here’s a qualified architect making music. David Letellier was born in France and now lives in Berlin which, as you know, is twinned, musically, with Detroit. Perhaps Letellier’s understanding of form and function, space and the aesthetics of construction enable him to design sound the way he does. Having a bass machine which looks like the Futurist’s  'intonarumori'  probably helps, although I cannot confirm that he actually possesses one. I suspect, disappointedly, that the huge bass sound he creates comes from a microprocessor the size of a matchbox, cut in half. Either way, he has mastered the art of making a magnificent noise.  It’s bass-heavy, yes, but there is also a roominess to the sound, wherein the heavy bottom end is contrasted with some beautifully programmed percussion. There’s the trick, as if Letellier has drafted these designs with an understanding of how light will fall through windows and, of course, what the various materials, their shape and size, will do for ambience. The Futurists idolised speed, but Letellier perfects a steppers pace as the best Drum ‘n’ Bass producers once did, without pandering to the demands of a dance floor. But if anyone is dancing to it, they’re robots, on Mars, in a building that looks like something from a world’s fair circa ’65. If you liked the ‘Pruitt Igoe’ EP, this should also satisfy. It’s big, meaty and bouncy.