Gonglot

In 2005, Mike Paradinas‘s Planet Mu label was finding its own space between the IDM / electronica / breakcore it was rooted in, hardcore techno and jungle revivalism, and being an early adopter of music orbiting dubstep and grime. And into the middle of all that came this absolutely extraordinary record from Scottish multi-instrumentalist and producer John Charles Wilson. It’s traditional folk and exploratory electronic, but it’s not “folktronica” by any common usage of the term. Its fidgety and sometimes flailing breakbeats are as micro-edited and maniacal as anything in Squarepusher’s catalogue but somehow looser, and feel completely in step with the accordions, music boxes and guitars, rather than vice versa. Its successor Come on Primates Show Your Teeth! is more traditionally accomplished in its production, but there’s something about the interface between tentativeness and confidence, way-out experimentation and just feeling right, that makes Gonglot a unique and very special record.