Detritus by The Breedling
The Breedling is the musical pseudonym of visual artist Chris Spalton. Based in Norfolk, Spalton’s work can be seen as being in the tradition of the storyteller. His illustration focuses on local folklore, communicating half-forgotten tales in new and re-energising ways.
His video work uses remote locations and their patterns of repetition to suggest narratives in a less linear
but equally revealing manner. He is a visual communicator: sometimes direct and clear, sometimes abstract and uncanny. It is therefore not surprising that his recent move into music should see him exploring similar story-telling themes.
The Breedling’s debut release Irukandji (Wrong Speed, 2023) felt
instinctive and almost playful in the way he used sound, rhythm, and texture so freely and without the usual constraints and genre rules that can restrict and tether electronic music in the wrong hands.
Occasionally (and excellently) crude, the listener genuinely feels the excitement that Spalton felt as the collages of sound were put together.
Detritus feels like a natural progression. A little more structured and thematic but no less primal or thrilling. Each song sees The Breedling take a single topic and create an imaginary soundtrack to accompany the telling. Brutal beheadings, slaughter, Hereward the Wake,
Witch-Finder Generals, Seahenge and murder in the name of self-defence in a remotefarmhouse (and everything that followed it). These are not jolly tales of life in the country.
Detritus picks at the flat lands and finds something unsettling, deep, and timeless swimming with the eels under the murky waters. This is a collection of multi-dimensional slabs of sound designed to evoke something living from these tales of horror, be they real, imagined or
somewhere between the two.
Tracklist
| 1. | The Duchess | 4:36 |
| 2. | Dead Balls | 7:57 |
| 3. | The Wake Takes Flight | 4:57 |
| 4. | Sky Burial | 5:32 |
| 5. | Confession | 4:33 |
| 6. | Slaughter At Stonea | 6:20 |
| 7. | Bleak House | 4:14 |
| 8. | Recede | Reveal | 5:19 |
Videos
Credits
Music by Chris Spalton | The Breedling
Cover art by James Brindley
Mastered by Thomas Joy
Wrong Speed Records: WSR064
