Guy Brewer has never been one for standing still. One of the minds behind the somewhat-legendary Commix project, whose forward-thinking and innovative DnB releases found a natural home on the unquestionably-legendary label Metalheadz, in the late 90s a move to Berlin coincided with the creation of his techno-oriented Shifted production alias.
The Carrier sound borrows precisely and tastefully from each of these, combining rude tech-step sensibilities with blisteringly-cold ambient elements, clinical techno textures with deep dub inspirations. After a steady run of five EPs establishing an already ear-pricking body of work, the project-to-date is now crystallised with Rhythm Immortal, Guy’s debut LP release as Carrier, courtesy of the Boomkat affiliated label, Modern Love, home to a meticulously curated, discerning body of music featuring the likes of Andy Stott, Claro Intelecto and Demdike Stare.
But onto the music. The album opens with a heavy, staggering beat set against bursts of static, setting up an ominous tension that finds release in dark, warped synths and the wide open spaces set up by lush ebbing pads. Despite elements being so distinct, ‘A Point Most Crucial’ is constructed in a manner that knits each together seamlessly, sounds effortlessly cutting in and out the frame in a manner that never reveals the full picture – an exercise in patience, in building tension and murky atmosphere.
‘Outer Shell’ opens with a liquid fluidity that recalls the ambient work of Voices From The Lake, a trickling synth line winds through the cavernous space created not by the lush pads of the previous track, but by vast, echoing percussive reverb. A gently riding hi-hat threads the route for the listener through this soundscape, the remaining elements building mini-crescendos before fading into silence.
The third track on the album introduces its first feature, as Voice Actor lends her distinct, distorted vocal attributes to the high-drifter of ‘That Veil Is Yours’, whispering through gently pulsing ambient washes of distilled sonic bliss. This leads us straight into ‘Carbon Works’, aptly named for the mechanical, industrial strains Carrier conjures up on the track, all slamming sheet metal and creaking, rusting beams in a wind of static washes – the sound of the warehouse long after the rave has dispersed into quiet.
From this quiet arise the soft, lush pads that open ‘Wave After Wave’, chords that mingle against a backdrop of tape hiss before a deep, dubby breakbeat sets the scene for ringing synths, pulsing and fading under Carrier’s expert guidance. Percussive reverb creates huge space in the break, tension is built and gently washed away by meticulous sequencing and sound design – Skee Mask-esque kind of tackle.
‘Amber Circle’ offers up vaporous vocal samples set against skittering percussive elements, deep beats distorted and resampled to within an inch of their sonic existences – and is that just the ghost of a 303 lurking in the corner? Penultimate track, ‘Lowland Topic’, provides more of the densely-layered textures, thumping bass and melodic, gently singing synths that provide a point of departure from previous tracks.
The album closes with ‘Offshore’, and what a way to finish the first album-length offering from the Carrier project. Initial ringing synths and a broken dubby kick pave the way for a gorgeous mid-point breakdown, falling chords descend through clouds of ambient bliss, Memotone’s vocoder-like feature offering a little low-end seediness into the stratospheric combination of pads, piano-like chord stabs and soft-shattering rides.
And here the album ends. Not overstretched, packaged and curated with the same care and attention that each bar of each track receives. An album where the devil is in the detail, the intricately-woven pattern of rhythms and textures that offer up new sonic routes to explore on each and every listen.
Interview by Will Patterson
"With Rhythm Immortal I wanted to take things into their most reduced and skeletal form yet. I also wanted it to have a feeling of the organic, but somehow alien and mutated."
Rhythm Immortal carries a distinct atmosphere. I pick up echoes of Ilian Tape in places. Were there particular labels, artists, or scenes that inspired the sound of this record? Whether recent discoveries or long-standing influences, who’s been shaping the mood and direction of your work here?
I see the project as something that is quite ambiguous in terms of genre. I suppose it’s informed by the music that’s been the most foundational for me, specifically Dub Techno, various strains of experimental and avant-garde music, and perhaps most importantly, Drum & Bass of a certain era. I’ve been making music for a long time, and I kind of feel like Carrier is an end point for me. I’ve dipped my toes into so many areas over the years, and this project is about me trying to unify my experiences and hopefully do something that feels unique and personal.
Could you tell us a little about the creation process behind the album? What equipment or methods did you gravitate towards, and how did the project evolve over time? I’m especially intrigued by your idea of creating a “shadow of sound,” which comes across so vividly on tracks 2, 3, 5, and 7. Could you expand on how you approached that sonically?
I work across hardware and software fairly evenly. Most of the time I’ll start a sketch on a sampler or my modular system. Once I have some material recorded, I’ll make sense of it in the computer, applying additional processing and moving things around until it feels right. Then things might be taken out of the computer again, fed to hardware, and tracked back in. Certainly much of my mix work happens within the DAW, but I do use analog summing for the final mixdown.
In terms of the “shadow of a sound” idea, this is really about my approach to processing sounds. So much of the time, what you’re hearing on a track is far removed from its starting point. I’ll try using various sounds to strike a resonator, or other physical modelling processes. In this situation, your initial sound becomes more like a material to strike against another, but some of its intrinsic qualities still remain.
Other times I’ll be resampling just the tail of a reverb that I’ve fed percussion into. In this case, are we really listening to the initial sound itself anymore? It’s hard to draw a line, because what you feed in has such an impact on what you get out, even when the processes in between are quite extreme.
Voice Actor and Memotone feature beautifully on this record. What drew you to working with them, and how did their contributions shape or complement your vision?
I’m quite averse to records that are heavy on guest features and collaborations. I feel like there has to be some real synergy and purpose behind them, and a lot of the time collaborations can feel quite cynical or disjointed in the context of an album. I really wanted to make sure that the features on this record felt natural, not like a PR exercise.
With Memotone, I’d sent him an idea I was working on and he recorded a bunch of parts over it. Initially I felt like it wasn’t clicking, so I discarded the track, took his parts, and used them much like I’d use material I’d recorded myself, processing them heavily and bending them into my world. After that, it came together very fluidly.
With Voice Actor, it was slightly different. It was the last track I worked on for the record and was initially meant to be an instrumental. Shlom at Modern Love suggested the idea of working with Noa, and once we approached her and she agreed to try writing some lyrics, I went back to the track and completely rebuilt it with her input in mind. She sent over stems, and it just seemed to fall into place very quickly.
"I’ve been making music for a long time, and I kind of feel like Carrier is an end point for me. I’ve dipped my toes into so many areas over the years, and this project is about me trying to unify my experiences and hopefully do something that feels unique and personal."
You’ve got some exciting tour dates lined up. How are you translating these tracks into a live setting? Have you had a chance to road-test them on the dancefloor yet, and are there any sets or recordings where listeners can hear the tracks reimagined in that context?
I think that much of what makes my music stand out is the attention to detail and engineering. I found it quite hard at first to replicate the sonic weight of my recordings in a live context, but now I feel like I’ve found a happy medium between my ability to improvise and still maintain the clarity and weight I want sonically.
I’ve been playing live shows as Carrier for a couple of years now, and things have slowly evolved to a point where I feel like I’m putting across the ethos of the project in a natural way. As soon as I completed the album, I started working on a way of presenting it live.
It’s essentially based on recordings from the actual tracks, but I’m able to manipulate and rearrange them, embellish certain elements, and bring out different details. It’s interesting to me that even with subtle differences in arrangement or mix, things can take on a completely new form.
Looking beyond the album itself, where does this record sit in your wider journey as Carrier? Does it feel like a continuation of past work, a departure into new territory, or perhaps the start of a new chapter altogether? And what do you hope listeners take away from spending time with it?
I feel like an album should be a reflection of where your head is at a particular point in time creatively. I’ve been working under this guise for a few years now, and with each record I’ve tried to push subtly into new territory. With Rhythm Immortal I wanted to take things into their most reduced and skeletal form yet. I also wanted it to have a feeling of the organic, but somehow alien and mutated.
I suppose I see this as the culmination of the first chapter. There’s always a sense of loss when you finish a large project like this, but that’s also very exciting. If I knew where the project would lead after this, it would take the fun out of it completely. It’s just a case of following your instincts and seeing where they take you.
How did the collaboration with Modern Love come about? It’s a label with such a distinct identity. What was it like joining their roster, and did being on the label influence the way you approached the album?
I’ve been following the label pretty much since its inception, so I’m incredibly honoured and excited to be working with them. Practically speaking, I was already working with Shlom on distribution for my own imprint. When I started this album, I knew I wanted to work with another label for it, so it felt natural to approach him with the idea.
Although Modern Love has a distinct identity, a large part of that comes from the freedom it gives its artists to experiment. Because of that, I felt completely free to do my thing. They had total trust in my vision for the record.
‘Rhythm Immortal’ is out now via Modern Love. Buy a vinyl copy from Inverted Audio Record Store.
TRACKLIST
1. A Point Most Crucial
2. Outer Shell
3. That Veil Of Yours feat. Voice Actor
4. Carbon Works
5. Wave After Wave
6. Amber Circle
7. Lowland Tropic
8. Offshore feat. Memotone
