Force + Form cover

Force + Form

Released

Anthony Child’s third album as Surgeon contains just four tracks, ranging from eight and a half to nearly 12 minutes. The snatches of melody that popped up on his debut, 1997’s Basictonalvocabulary, are almost entirely stripped away here, leaving just a chromed Terminator skeleton: pounding beats, the occasional vocal sample chopped too finely to even function as language, a single droning synth note. But the pieces are suitelike, moving through distinct phases and going down surprising tangents (wait for the recording of him in a Kalamazoo hotel room near the end of “Returning to the Purity of Current”) even as they deliver relentless, concussive percussion.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
Don't Think cover

Don't Think

The Chemical Brothers
LP5 cover

LP5

Autechre
Nunatak cover

Nunatak

Thomas Köner
Matrix cover

Matrix

Ryoji Ikeda
Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet cover

Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet

Kronos Quartet, Aki Takahashi
Lido Hotel cover

Lido Hotel

Mathias Schaffhäuser
Escape the Flames cover

Escape the Flames

Binker & Moses
Lovers Do cover

Lovers Do

Bruno Pronsato