- Artist
- Actress
- ReleaseProduct
- Karma & Desire
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNL271
- Release Date
- 23 ottobre 2020
-
Vinile 2×LP
$27.49
-
Download
$9.99320 kbps, codifica LAME
Generi
Actress telegraphed the intention for “Karma & Desire” in advance to make sure we were ready for it. He called his seventh studio album “a romantic tragedy set between the heavens and the underworld… love, death, technology and the questioning of one’s being.” By adding human voices to his signature style of textural haze and mid-tempo techno pulse, Darren Cunningham has evidently found a new sweet spot.
That’s a profound shift. From the beginning of the Actress myth on 2008’s “Hazyville”, past the crossover classics that were 2010’s “Splazsh” and 2012’s “R.I.P.”, and through a winding road of faux-career deaths, orchestral collaborations, chrome fascination and 48-minute long tracks, he has been defined by sepulchral qualities. Actress the artist seemed to exist in a permanently liminal state: a musical will-o’-the-wisp, glinting through the depths of night. He typically operated alone and preferred to articulate himself wordlessly.
Now, the fog has cleared. Those voices, tactile and vulnerable, make themselves known like never before. The soft light of a new dawn (possibly childbirth) glows across the album. Sampha’s indelible honeyed tones stand out clearly, singing the refrain of “These are like graphics that I’ve never seen / My face on another human being” at numerous junctures across the album, most strikingly on the Kara-Lis Coverdale–assisted ‘Walking Flames’ – “Karma & Desire”’s first single, and closing mantra.
Has Cunningham’s inscrutability melted? As he keeps cards tight up against his chest it’s hard to be sure, but the sprawl of styles across “Karma & Desire”’s 70-minute runtime would suggest so. For an artist whose career has been defined by monochromatic hues, there are splashes of colour all over the place. ‘Loveless’, featuring Aura T-09, is more or less an outright R&B / UK Garage hybrid, while ‘Diamond X’ knocks harder than any Actress song in a decade.
Even on a gently-ebbing number like ‘Gliding Squares’, which seems to call back directly to ‘Ascending’ and ‘N.E.W.’ –– the chokingly tender bookends of “R.I.P.” –– there’s a tactical decision to play it straight, rather than Cunningham showing us a past self through a gauze. Maybe he got bored of the murk and obfuscation; maybe he’s merely getting a prettier album out of his system before doubling down with a dense tome of glitch.
But as well as integrating singing into his compositions, what’s interesting is that Actress no longer operates alone in a wider sense, either. You can point to a lineage of Black British musicians –– including cktrl, Dean Blunt, Coby Sey and Klein –– who work within a roughly similar framework: cloaked in shadow, leaving breadcrumbs in the trail, engaging with light and the dark, all crafting beautifully poignant, categorisation-eluding music with a range of tools. It makes “Karma & Desire” the first Actress album in a minute to chime with the contemporary mood. And if that leads to another round of collaboration from here, we’ll be all the richer for it.
Lista dei brani digitali
-
1
Fire and Light
Actress
1:15
Acquista
Fire and Light
-
WAV (24-bit)
$2.19 -
WAV / FLAC
$1.99 -
MP3
$1.35
-
-
2
Angels Pharmacy
Actress featuring Zsela
4:41
Acquista
Angels Pharmacy
-
WAV (24-bit)
$2.19 -
WAV / FLAC
$1.99 -
MP3
$1.35
-
-
3
Remembrance
Actress featuring Zsela
2:41
Acquista
Remembrance
-
WAV (24-bit)
$2.19 -
WAV / FLAC
$1.99 -
MP3
$1.35
-
-
4
Reverend
Actress
2:58
Acquista
Reverend
-
WAV (24-bit)
$2.19 -
WAV / FLAC
$1.99 -
MP3
$1.35
-
-
5
Leaves Against The Sky
Actress
4:38
Acquista
Leaves Against The Sky
-
WAV (24-bit)
$2.19 -
WAV / FLAC
$1.99 -
MP3
$1.35
-
-
6
Save
Actress
5:05
Acquista
Save
-
WAV (24-bit)
$2.19 -
WAV / FLAC
$1.99 -
MP3
$1.35
-
-
7
VVY
Actress featuring Sampha
2:37
Acquista
VVY
-
WAV (24-bit)
$2.19 -
WAV / FLAC
$1.99 -
MP3
$1.35
-
-
8
XRAY
Actress
3:31
Acquista
XRAY
-
WAV (24-bit)
$2.19 -
WAV / FLAC
$1.99 -
MP3
$1.35
-
-
9
Gliding Squares
Actress
3:06
Acquista
Gliding Squares
-
WAV (24-bit)
$2.19 -
WAV / FLAC
$1.99 -
MP3
$1.35
-
-
10
Many Seas, Many Rivers
Actress featuring Sampha
8:10
Acquista
Many Seas, Many Rivers
-
WAV (24-bit)
$2.19 -
WAV / FLAC
$1.99 -
MP3
$1.35
-
Actress
-
- Artist
- Actress
- ReleaseProduct
- LXXXVIII
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNL295
- Release Date
- 3 novembre 2023
- LP (special)
- CD
- Download
-
- Artist
- Actress
- ReleaseProduct
- Its me ( g 8 ) / Oway ( f 7 )
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNL295WW
- Release Date
- 12 ottobre 2023
- Download
-
- Artist
- Actress
- ReleaseProduct
- Game Over ( e 1 )
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNL295GW
- Release Date
- 12 settembre 2023
- Download
-
- Artist
- Actress
- ReleaseProduct
- Push Power ( a 1 )
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNL295PW
- Release Date
- 14 agosto 2023
- Download
-
- Artist
- Actress
- ReleaseProduct
- Dummy Corporation
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNLS630
- Release Date
- 11 novembre 2022
- Download
-
- Artist
- Actress
- ReleaseProduct
- Dream
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNLS630D
- Release Date
- 12 ottobre 2022
- Download
-
- Artist
- Actress
- ReleaseProduct
- AZD
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNL241
- Release Date
- 14 aprile 2017
- CD
- Download
-
- Artist
- Actress
- ReleaseProduct
- Bird Matrix (Remixes)
- Label
- !K7 Records
- Catalogue Number
- 0730003731907
- Release Date
- 30 ottobre 2015
- Download
Ninja Tune
-
Preordine
- Artist
- Elkka
- ReleaseProduct
- Prism of Pleasure
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNL298
- Release Date
- 7 giugno 2024
- LP (special)
- CD
- Download
-
Preordine
- Artist
- Machinedrum
- ReleaseProduct
- 3FOR82
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNL299
- Release Date
- 24 maggio 2024
- LP
- Download
-
Preordine
- Artist
- I. JORDAN
- ReleaseProduct
- I AM JORDAN
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNL304
- Release Date
- 10 maggio 2024
- LP
- CD
- Download
-
- Artist
- Machinedrum featuring Duckwrth
- ReleaseProduct
- ILIKEU
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNL299LW
- Release Date
- 28 marzo 2024
- Download
-
- Artist
- Glass Beams
- ReleaseProduct
- Mahal
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNLS667
- Release Date
- 22 marzo 2024
- Download
-
- Artist
- Metronomy and Pan Amsterdam
- ReleaseProduct
- Nice Town
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNLS669
- Release Date
- 12 marzo 2024
- 12”
- Download
-
- Artist
- I. JORDAN
- ReleaseProduct
- Close To You
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNL304BW
- Release Date
- 5 marzo 2024
- Download
-
- Artist
- Machinedrum featuring Tinashe
- ReleaseProduct
- ZOOM
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNL299ZW
- Release Date
- 4 marzo 2024
- Download
Electronic and Electronica
-
- Artist
- Prefuse 73
- ReleaseProduct
- New Strategies For Modern Crime Volume 1
- Label
- Lex Records
- Catalogue Number
- LEX180D1
- Release Date
- 22 marzo 2024
- Download
-
- Artist
- Recondite
- ReleaseProduct
- Hinterland
- Label
- Ghostly International
- Catalogue Number
- GI190CD
- Release Date
- 11 novembre 2013
- LP (special)
- Download
-
- Artist
- Mr. Scruff
- ReleaseProduct
- Ninja Tuna
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNL143X
- Release Date
- 21 settembre 2008
- LP
- Download
-
- Artist
- Machinedrum featuring Duckwrth
- ReleaseProduct
- ILIKEU
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNL299LW
- Release Date
- 28 marzo 2024
- Download
-
- Artist
- Nathan Micay
- ReleaseProduct
- Time Bomb Y2K OST
- Label
- LUCKYME®
- Catalogue Number
- LM108D
- Release Date
- 27 marzo 2024
- Download
-
Preordine
- Artist
- Eartheater
- ReleaseProduct
- Powders
- Label
- Chemical X
- Catalogue Number
- CHMX016
- Release Date
- 20 settembre 2023
- CD
- Cassetta
- Download
-
- Artist
- Jlin
- ReleaseProduct
- Akoma
- Label
- Planet Mu Records Ltd.
- Catalogue Number
- ZIQ460
- Release Date
- 22 marzo 2024
- LP
- CD
- Pacchetto
- Download
-
- Artist
- The Utopia Strong
- ReleaseProduct
- The BBC Sessions
- Label
- Rocket Recordings
- Catalogue Number
- Launch346
- Release Date
- 22 marzo 2024
- LP
- CD
- Download
Album of the Week
-
- Artist
- Jlin
- ReleaseProduct
- Akoma
- Label
- Planet Mu Records Ltd.
- Catalogue Number
- ZIQ460
- Release Date
- 22 marzo 2024
- LP
- CD
- Pacchetto
- Download
-
- Artist
- Four Tet
- ReleaseProduct
- Three
- Label
- Text Records
- Catalogue Number
- TEXT056D
- Release Date
- 15 marzo 2024
- LP
- CD
- Pacchetto
- Download
-
- Artist
- Soichi Terada
- ReleaseProduct
- Apes In The Net
- Label
- Far East Recording
- Catalogue Number
- FER 06903
- Release Date
- 23 febbraio 2024
- EP
-
- Artist
- Squarepusher
- ReleaseProduct
- Dostrotime
- Label
- Warp Records
- Catalogue Number
- WARPDD366
- Release Date
- 1 marzo 2024
- LP (special)
- CD
- Download
-
- Artist
- Sandwell District
- ReleaseProduct
- WHERE NEXT ?
- Label
- Point Of Departure
- Catalogue Number
- PODR011
- Release Date
- 23 febbraio 2024
- LP
- Download
-
- Artist
- The Future Sound Of London
- ReleaseProduct
- By Any Other Name
- Label
- WeMe
- Catalogue Number
- WeMe083
- Release Date
- 16 febbraio 2024
- LP
-
- Artist
- Mark Van Hoen
- ReleaseProduct
- Plan For A Miracle
- Label
- Dell’Orso
- Catalogue Number
- EDDA64LP
- Release Date
- 9 febbraio 2024
- LP
-
- Artist
- The Future Sound Of London
- ReleaseProduct
- Presents Pulse Five
- Label
- De:tuned
- Catalogue Number
- ASGDE044
- Release Date
- 26 gennaio 2024
- LP (special)
Top 10 Albums of the Year 2020
-
- Artist
- Arca
- ReleaseProduct
- KiCk i
- Label
- XL Recordings
- Catalogue Number
- XL997
- Release Date
- 17 luglio 2020
- LP
- CD
- Download
-
- Artist
- Oneohtrix Point Never
- ReleaseProduct
- Magic Oneohtrix Point Never
- Label
- Warp Records
- Catalogue Number
- WARPCDD318
- Release Date
- 30 ottobre 2020
- LP
- CD
- Download
-
- Artist
- Eartheater
- ReleaseProduct
- Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin
- Label
- PAN
- Catalogue Number
- PAN112
- Release Date
- 16 ottobre 2020
- Download
-
- Artist
- K-LONE
- ReleaseProduct
- Cape Cira
- Label
- Wisdom Teeth
- Catalogue Number
- WSDMLP001
- Release Date
- 24 aprile 2020
- Download
-
Sconto
- Artist
- Speaker Music
- ReleaseProduct
- Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry
- Label
- Planet Mu Records Ltd.
- Catalogue Number
- ZIQ424
- Release Date
- 19 giugno 2020
- LP
- Pacchetto
- Download
-
- Artist
- Actress
- ReleaseProduct
- Karma & Desire
- Label
- Ninja Tune
- Catalogue Number
- ZENDNL271
- Release Date
- 23 ottobre 2020
- LP
- Download
-
- Artist
- Cabaret Voltaire
- ReleaseProduct
- Shadow of Fear
- Label
- Mute
- Catalogue Number
- ICABS30
- Release Date
- 20 novembre 2020
- LP (special)
- CD
- Download
-
- Artist
- Tara Clerkin Trio
- ReleaseProduct
- Tara Clerkin Trio
- Label
- Laura Lies In
- Catalogue Number
- LLI007
- Release Date
- 24 gennaio 2020
- LP
- Download