City Slang (label)
22 February 2019 (released)
22 February 2019
Bayonne say: Comprised of field recordings encased with found sounds and natural noise all stacked upon synthetic sculptures hyperreal layer-player Bayonne (Roger Sellers) creates this tapestry of ‘selectronica’; a bricolage montage of pure mirage that mixes a 70s AOR soft-rock sheen (especially on ‘Bothering’), Laurie Anderson’s meta-textual experimentalism with a millennial minimal mish-mashing of narrowfat processed beats.
Bayonne the see: a sonic tour diary of a man frank about the upheavals of perpetual town travel, the psychic and physical effects of disconnected connections where absence makes the art go a-wander as evidenced on ‘I know’.
Bayonne the shadow of doubt: ‘I Know’ is (seemingly) a lament to A.N. Other who by ‘chasing after something I can’t ever leave behind, never stop my dreaming, but she looks like a go-getter’ betrays the innermost instincts of our protagonist. Loose lips sink ships …
Bayonne question: ‘QA’ is a repetitive yet never tedious Ryuchi Sakamoto-like opener, multi-textural choralising with a hypnotic pop-backdrop.
Bayonne the valley of the dolls: ‘Same’ channels Grandaddy’s dreamtronica, ‘I didn’t think that it would make me wonder’ he sighs. Or is it wander?
Bayonne the (g)rave: Rolling, cajoling looping keys tickle the ivories on ‘Gift’, an orch-pop confection worthy of a walk in the Van Dyke Parks.
Bayonne the pale: ‘Enders’ is the sound of a sedate seaside stroll that climaxes abruptly like a gust of wind that blows your ice-cream in your face.
Bayonne reach: ‘Kind’ soars and scales the heights, a lethargic lolloping happy-clapping arms-aloft anthem.
Above and Bayonne: In a world of The XX-ecreable and James Blake’s I-mopia, an incessant hype-machine cavalcade of soul-besmirching ‘Oh-woe-is-me-isms’ this is a joyous antidote. This gives out with both hands and doesn’t ask for anything back, but your attention. It insists on listening from onset to outset, no dismantling and repurposing necessary. An anti-fragment experience that is more than the sum of its parts.
Go on, you know ya auteur.
