Bleep

On skins n slime, cellist and composer Oliver Coates delivers an extraordinary collection of soundscapes which balance moody background drones with impressionistic melodies. The album consists mainly of single-take recordings, though these tracks sound so full that you’d be forgiven for thinking they contained a great amount of overdubbing. The ‘slime’ of the album’s title refers to the textures that Coates is able to create by running his cello through a series of pedals - two digital loopers, distortion and chorus to be precise. Sometimes this combination results in soupy atmospheres which provide a greyscale backdrop to Coates’ mournfully beautiful lead-lines - see album opener ‘Caregiver part 1 (breathing)’ on this front. Anyone who has heard ‘Remain Calm’, the 2016 album which Coates created alongside Mica Levi, will hear these entries as a clear development on the sound of that record.

However, skins n slime also contains some of the most aggressive and noisy music of Coates’ distinguished career. A fair few tracks here deliver grinding walls of drone which have as much in common with doom metal as they do with the classical avant-garde. In doing so they touch on records such as Stephen O’Malley’s ‘Auflösung Der Zeit’ and Golem Mecanique’s ‘Nona, Decima et Morta’ as well as the grindcore-cello hybrids of Mr. Marcaille. When brought together with etherised chamber pieces such as ‘Philomela Mutation’, the overall effect is of an arrestingly varied record.

skins n slime finds cellist and composer Oliver Coates drawing on chamber music, drone, doom metal and more to expand his sonic palette in bold and beautiful ways. A portion of the proceeds from the sales of skins n slime will go towards Down’s Syndrome Scotland.