It’s been a decade since Brooklyn-based Tyler Gilmore, aka Blank For.ms followed his musical intuition and shifted from the world of big band jazz composition and ensemble arrangements to focus on the soundscape expanses of electronic music. Since then he’s taken his spiralling interest in DIY cassette loops and synths to become known for his deep diving approach to experimental sonics.
Since his first album in 2019, the transitional ‘Works For Tape And Piano’ and a couple of EPs where his synthesised explorations matured, the progression in Blank For.ms music has been ever enthralling. His new album ‘After The Town Was Swept Away’ curated by Leaving Records does more than maintain that momentum, which is some achievement given the context of the recording. During his new work’s gestation, he experienced two deeply personal events, the birth of his first child and the passing of his mother. These inevitably prompted original ideas to be re-framed, the feelings re-articulated to reflect joy, grief and the inexplicable emotions which swirl between them. As a result ‘ After The Town Was Swept Away’ emerges as an album of considerable depth and resonance.
There’s something innocent about Never Left, the brief snippet which introduces this understated Blank For.ms offering. A ringtone loop or a music box chime on repeat, it seems a deliberately low-key opening which lures you to listen in, a chink of sound hinting at something uncertain. A Fleet Of Celebrants follows, its gentle padding rhythm locked in with a mechanical offbeat to keep the unsettling edge. A sunrise of shimmering synths begins to soothe with added moments of spiralling instrumental beauty from saxophonist Remy Le Boeuf bringing warmth and flow. Those off-kilter rhythmic loops coupled with Gilmore’s instinctive grasp of Drum & Bass momentum may sound precarious in writing but they often create a foundation which works for this album. With Ferried Across this beat construction underpins sighing electronic strings plus fragile synth line, making you sense movement while other consequences loom.
What Blank For.ms is creating here are songs reflecting transition points encountered and which wonder about the more illusive consequences. On To Survive The Flood, the skittering beats become serially submerged by a complex layered drone which gradually floods the soundscape. Such eventual abstract dreaminess returns on the calming Formed By The Slide, where the soft comforting pulse, restful song of guest vocalist Ella Joy Meir and a warming melody, soothe intuitively. At times the ambience is shaken, the pace stutters, rhythms swipe with a question before shying away but the gentleness seems to prevail until the last resolving note.
Blank For.ms seems keen to deconstruct as well develop a soundtrack throughout. Short sonic interludes often lead into the longer tunes sometimes choral in tone (Kinship 1, 2 and 3), otherworldly and improvisational (Unfurled Atop The Peak) or a humming monotone (Colter). These minutiae add more glitchy tension to an album which never aims to settle in a comfort zone. What distinguishes ‘After The Town Was Swept Away’ though is that you can readily sense the places and situations which Gilmore is thinking about throughout this album.
Take Crail Family Post Office which bustles to some busy Shinichi Atobe rhythms with jazz funk undertones and a Corea-like scuttling synth run. It’s an infectious piece of small world psychedelia. Then there’s the title track, all pulse beat and an eerie drone of emptiness which approaches the ambient darkness of Actress or The Bug. From the white noise rips to the bass beat throbs and frisky percussive shimmy, it’s a powerful piece of minimal techno imagery. Emptiness feels so close by.
‘After The Town Was Swept Away’ as an album never overplays the epic but let’s detail and descriptiveness do the work. The forward-thinking Leaving Records has form in bringing an audacious bunch of experimental downtempo explorers like Dustin Wong, Brin, Colloboh and label boss Matthewdavid out onto the airwaves. Blank For.ms with this record adds yet another significant dimension to this ever-impressive roster.
Get your copy of ‘After The Town Was Swept Away‘ by Blank For.ms from your local record store or direct from Leaving Records HERE
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