SlowPitch: Emoralis EP
What Rules Recordings

Operating out of his Toronto home base, self-proclaimed sci-fi-turntablist Cheldon Paterson returns with a new SlowPitch cassette collection titled Emoralis. Reflective of his love for science fiction movies, the eight-track release packs no small amount of tripped-out turntable manipulations into its svelte nineteen-minute frame.

With lift-off imminent, the trip to Emoralis is counted down in “Separation Point” before the voyage gets underway. Soon after, the targeted destination appears to have been reached in “Thoughts In Zero Gravity” before the lurching groove of “Anterior Movement” takes over. Interestingly, the usual signifiers of turntablism don't plainly assert themselves until the fourth track, “Lo - Fi - Sci,” where scratching and other manipulations convert disembodied voices and assorted other sounds into sonic wooze. Turntable-based effects surface even more dramatically during “Dream Time In Cryosleep” when a speaker's repeated “I consider myself a time traveler, actually” utterance turns into silly putty in Paterson's hands. “Snail Nebula” assumes a slightly more conventional form when a punchy Afro-house groove appears as a swinging ground for the horn-like flurries that blare throughout the four-minute cut, while at cassette's end, “She Makes Solar Flares” slows the tempo for a final collage of tribal percussion, garbled voices, and warm synth chords.

As interesting as the initial tracks are, it's the longer ones that impress more, simply because they allow Paterson more time to work his particular magic. Changes happen fast in the SlowPitch universe, and ample doses of stimulation are packed into these spacey constructions.

March 2015