Bleep

Touch Records (Fennesz, Phill Niblock) continue their long and fruitful partnership with Philip Jeck. Arcade is a follow-up to the Liverpudlian’s 2017 EP Iklectik, and like that record it sees Jeck taking his practice of manipulating old records and turntables to inspired new places. People tend to compare Jeck’s work to that of The Caretaker, but the truth is that Jeck’s output is simultaneously more obtuse and more immediate than James Leyland Kirby’s project. Add to that the fact that the recording on Arcade was taken from a live performance alongside Simon Scott and Yann Novak, and the scale of what Jeck can achieve through his discipline becomes more apparent. A haunting and beautiful half-hour of music.