Third Space – Scissor Kick [LP]

"Lost icebergs off the arctic, hollowed out memory, an acerbic embrace.

Third Space presents his first long-player via .jpeg artefacts. Venturing from previous, punchier, swinging percussion found on previous releases, the LP delivers careful introspection, experimentation, and rich conceptual development.

The beatless iterations and encompassing walls of sound that stuck their heads out on earlier EPs are embraced in full here; it’s claustrophobic but space is found in the right areas. Tension and release to the nth degree, but without becoming a trope. Percussion remains, but slowed to a crawl.

The release calls on memories of Ambarchi’s Oystered (as well as, notably, Grapes from the Estate) and the clicks and hums of Pan Sonic, but it’s the development past this that allows Scissor Kick to shine. The areas where intimacy is pushed through field recordings, live scattered percussion (from R.Rebeiro, as well as TS), and those subtle reminders that Third Space still has an iron-firm grasp on percussive rhythm, is where this record stands on its own solid ground. What was foggy red-roomed speaker stacks has given way to arctic tundra, vast expanse, acid rain.

Layer up."

.jpeg Artefacts, 2022