Bleep

Saint Abdullah have had their hands all over the music world since their career began. Born in Iran, living in New York, and with connections across the globe, the label hopping adventures of the brothers Mohammad and Mehdi Mehrabani-Yeganeh have brought them to Important Records, Other People, and Disciples. Irish artist Eomac has been similarly explorative and collaborative throughout his discography, and his second record with the duo brings them to Planet Mu, updating the furore of last year’s Patience Of A Traitor LP with nocturnal reverberance and droning notes that create hypnotising soundscapes.

A Vow Not To Read is the product of long distance collaboration, perhaps represented in the title track’s sputtering noise and blips like packets of data sent over the sea. Sighing chords hang in that maritime air, and the rips and tears of the information overload somehow don’t disturb the serenity of harmonic loops breezing underneath. The noise gets amplified on ‘Wali’, like hissing rain broken by quaking rhythms created from pure electricity. Those rocky, boulder-weight beats twitch alongside jaggedly manipulated vocal samples of Shia Muslim mourning rituals, leading to the robust garage patterns of ‘No One Thought Of Love Anymore’ with chirping high-pitched synths, and the asymmetrical, angular rhythms of ‘Toes In The Hummus’. Digitally shredded percussion on ‘Mother I Couldn’t Sleep’ builds friction against the cool of romantic trumpet from Aquiles Navarro, speaking to the free-spirited, musical melting pot Saint Abdullah and Eomac have cooked up.