ROB ELLIS works deep in that Bristolian sonic tradition which has mutated British music’s DNA so often down the past three decades.
He’s conversant across dub, dubstep, grime, and global traditions: check “Qawwali”, his 12” for Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu, built on harmoniums and samples of the Pakistani devotional singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. And now he’s unveiled his first solo album on some 13 years, Reality Tunnel; which is based on a concept first propounded by scifi writer Robert Anton Wilson.
Rob explains: “[It] relates to an idea on how we create our own perspective – the subjective filter that we each apply to the world around us; the things we perceive and what our consciousness deems worthy of attention … our beliefs, values, behaviours and so on, which we create and can therefore reshape, are the product of our individual reality tunnels.”.
The album is being led out into the world by “Party”, a collaboration with Killa P. It splices ghostly children’s voices, ambient tech washes and sustain, and the deep, dulcet, West Indian timbre and gravel of Rodney P. Listen below.
The album, out now, promises a free-roaming exploration of “techno, grime, dub, jungle, dubstep and other, more surprising styles”.
And with his time served under Bristol EQ-buster Adrian Sherwood, expect a deep, unsettling, bassy joy. Pinch’s Reality Tunnels is available now to stream and download, and on CD and double vinyl physical formats. To order, visit https://pinch-tectonic.bandcamp.com/album/reality-tunnels
