{review} Other Lands - Pattern Transform

While most records are released, Firecracker Recordings records are born. Every single item in their catalogue feels like it was conceived, carried through gestation, the full three trimesters, and given birth to in a euphoric and climatic welcome. Even the most basic version of their releases is imbued with their artisans touch. Sleeves are screen-printed with designs that are bespoke and intricate. Their special editions include collectable touches varying from large form individual art prints - usually designed by the House Of Traps collective - to hand sewn bags. This is the love of a parent.

This love is in turn reflected in the children. Artists that are picked up and nurtured on Firecracker are as idiosyncratic as their packaging. Dip back through their history and you'll find the cosmic deep hues of Lord Of The Isles, Linkwood's whimsical house and techno, Vakula's patchwork grooves, and the unpredictable kaleidoscopic range of Lnrdcroy, plus a whole host more who have guested here. Their latest release, 'Pattern Transform' by Other Lands, sees four tracks of individual character, much like the different facets of four different siblings.

Opening track 'Descent Into Nasqueron' swirls into action with psychedelic arpeggio. However this is no ambient track. Halfway through, disgruntled percussion is invited to the proceedings. Begrudgingly so, as it in no way feels like it wants to be subjected to something as trivial as an anchoring metronome, tugging away at every beat like the pull on the hand of a beleaguered parent attempting to reign in a rambunctious toddler.

Personal favourite 'Chapel Perilous Closed' is next. The main melody here is erratic, half string and half brass. Again the percussion takes its time to appear, this time urgent and phasing. It is fare thee well techno for adventurous end of night dance floors, which are inhabited by the fifteen remaining pious souls clinging onto the last emotional moments before being ejected blinking into morning sun.

Shifting in mood, the weird and wonderful theme is dispelled by 'Late Feeling Yourself', which is the most direct moment on the package. Merely tagging this as deep house would be a disservice, as it beguiles with jazzy chords and deftly stuttering house beats.

Rounding off, 'A Paddle Around The Drowned World' is a Balearic angled closer, designed to get you thinking of exotic shores. However it is divergent in nature. Superficially organic at first, you feel as if you were to kneel down and run your hands through the sandy shore it alludes to, it would reveal that they were pinpricks of fibre optic cable.

'Pattern Transform' is certainly one of Firecracker's strongest releases to date, where its lurid neon wrapper is but the first of many tantalising surprises that it has in store. While you may find that you don't always gravitate to every record that comes from the Edinburgh based imprint, the world would be a far poorer place without it.

TRACKLIST

1. Descent Into Nasqueron
2. Chapel Perilous Closed
3. Late Feeling Yourself
4. A Paddle Around The Drowned World

'Pattern Transform' can be bought digitally at Bandcamp. The standard physical edition is sold out with two special editions remaining at the time of writing.

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