Donnacha Costello
Before We Say Goodbye
Though current hard drives never fill, RAM upgrades are unlimited and software allows myriad ideas a quick birth, many of the notorious IDM and table-core beat-smiths of the last fifteen years (i.e. Aphex Twin, kid606, Squarepusher, Caribou) abandoned the course of “faster, fresher, unique” to look back on the scores of styles only touched upon even by their own creators. This just in: Creativity Trumps Technology!
Getting the itch around 2005, former Forcelab and Mille Plateaux darling Donnacha Costello switched gears, casting off his glitch (i.e. Together is the New Alone), to develop music based on a limited palette of pads, synthetic strings, steady rhythms and otherwise warmth associated with Progressive House. As per the genre, Costello guides each pulse-driven track with a “greater emphasis on emotion before structural considerations” (Wikipedia’s definition, so please don’t spam, correct, flame or sue me). In other words, he isn’t as concerned with the 32 bar DJ intro or the build of filtering acid as crafting his mood – a supple one better paired with Sunday morning Scrabble than Saturday night debauchery (though the stomping “Roll It Out” is suitable for post-brunch bocce).
When he works without a net (the bass drum), Costello’s work recalls a futurism circa 1982. “With Me Still” could easily slip under scenes of Harrison Ford’s hover car as it soars towards the Tyrell Corporation; the arpeggiated minor key of “The Tug” conjures images of a certain orange-haired woman’s agreement on the part and parcel of sweet dreams.
As with many albums pegged by this style, appreciation of the deft exploration of nuances requires more than a five-second glean. Likewise, the whole is best experienced contiguously a la works from Costello’s woodshed mentors (he cites John Cage and Steve Reich, and the latter’s Music for 18 Musicians comes to mind).
As mentioned, if you’re looking for a goose to the electronica multiverse, Before We Say Goodbye is not the place. In Costello’s world, the trick is to not think so much about the trend but focus on forging simple, effective, engaging and listenable music. And that he does.
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