Pruning

Description

On his debut album “Pruning”, Bristol-based musician Will Yates collects previously unreleased recordings under a fitting title – Pruning – having already released a series of records for renowned labels such as Black Acre, The Trilogy Tapes, and Soda Gong. If we consider the process of pruning as a practice of selective removal, then the album takes its name literally and never becomes a mere collection of discarded material or a random compilation of B-sides, making it a cohesive listening experience across its various periods and detours. “Pruning” is a statement about memotone’s own vision, approaching its encounter with Fourth World/ECM/Exotica and science fiction transmutations that are consistent with what one might expect from a memotone release on Discrepant. “Moss Zone” briefly sets the tone with a warm but uncomfortable synth pad that transitions into the cyber-jungle of “Weird Figures,” where all the small shimmering percussions and rainforest layers slowly accumulate. “Riders” brings the synthesized flute to a prime distortion scenario that meets John Hassell’s “City: Works of Fiction” and reappears in a more interrupted form in “Wisdom [MOTHER].”