Craig, Ian William: Thresholder (Vinyl LP)

Eighteen months on from his last new release, Vancouver-based singer / composer Ian William Craig returns with an album-length release that collects together eleven new tracks. Entitled Thresholder, the record sees Craig return towards the smudged and scoured beauty of his 2016 opus, Centres, a record which was universally acclaimed, making many end-of-year lists – including the likes of Rolling Stone, Uncut, The Wire, The Quietus, The 405 and Drowned In Sound. Thresholder is released on vinyl and digital formats, with the former packaged in gorgeous inner / outer sleeve artwork from Ian.

Besides as the often-quoted William Basinski reference point, the music here recalls the visceral media-decay of early ‘00s operators like Fennesz, Belong, Desormais, Philip Jeck or Pimmon. 'Idea for Contradiction 2' Is like a massively overdriven or sandpaper-scoured version of Brian Eno's 'An Ending' or some shredded Colin Stetson stem. The ending of ‘And Therefore the Moonlight’ - is reminiscent of Sigur Rós (who are fans and recently invited Ian to play their Norður og Niður festival in Reykjavik); whilst ‘Sfumato’ exists in the same dimension as The Caretaker's haunted ballroom with its reverb-drenched and occluded distant vocal. Elsehwere 'The Last Wesbrook Lament' might recall Animal Collective's 'Loch Raven' with the percussion erased. Craig signs the record off on 'More Words for Mistake', a track that seems to define itself through absence, with the spirit of old machinery rattling away as we emerge from the record's 38-minutes scoured and anointed.

1. Elided
   
2. Some Absolute Means
   
3. TC-377 Poem
   
4. Mass Noun
   
5. Idea for Contradiction 1
   
6. And Therefore the Moonlight
   
7. The Last Wesbrook Lament
   
8. Discovered in Flat
   
9. Sfumato
   
10. Idea for Contradiction 2
    
11. More Words for Mistake