Ben Billington gets around. I mean this not only in terms of the numerous physical media bearing his name that sit on shelves or in tape decks out there. I mean he literally moves his body around Chicago and engages in The Scene, Man. Pay attention and you’ll probably catch him at The Empty Bottle or the Burlington or any number of relatively “underground” zones this week. Maybe he’s playing a solo set under his Quicksails moniker; maybe he’s splitting heads open on drums in Tiger Hatchery or more recently in Circuit Des Yeux’s live ensemble; maybe he’s just around, checking out whoever happens to be playing, living his life like a normal-ass human being. Next time you see him, say hi. Tell him how much you dig Pandava. He’ll probably give you a high five.
The newest Quicksails material lands in the big, knob-twisting hands of John Elliott, who gives Mayville Dream the lush LP treatment we’ve come to expect from his Spectrum Spools imprint. The textures of “Institute’s Innards” fit in right alongside the technicolor offerings of Bee Mask or Three Legged Race, fellow Solo Humans Ably Recording Dense Synth-y Music on Spectrum Spools (SHARDSMoSS, for short). But Billington approaches his compositions from a percussionist’s perspective: the squiggles and pentatonic leads spread out over a grid of beats and sequences, resulting in something slightly more song-ular than the average SHARDSMoSS experience.
Mayville Dream arrives on April 15th. Preorder the LP from Spectrum Spools. Keep Billington’s art alive. Support your local SHARDSMoSS.
• Quicksails: https://soundcloud.com/memorybomb
• Spectrum Spools: http://editionsmego.com/releases/spectrum-spools
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