tue 03/12/2024

CD of the Year: Rustie - Glass Swords | reviews, news & interviews

CD of the Year: Rustie - Glass Swords

CD of the Year: Rustie - Glass Swords

Virtuoso psychedelic hyperstimulation from the young Glaswegian

Rustie's 'Glass Swords': the restrained artwork concealing demented contents

If 2011 was the year when dance music's natural tendency to fragmentation was taken to extremes, this album was the one that bound those fragments together into one demented but scintillating vision. Russell Whyte – Rustie – comes from a very particularly Scottish club scene that is the perfect antidote to the idea that musical connoisseurship means nerdiness.

From the very simple imperative of moving a dance floor in fresh ways comes an explosion of ideas and influences: retro video game soundtracks, obscure Japanese noise bands, the hyper-capitalist hyper-pop of 21st-century R&B, the prog rock of Yes at their most overblown, and the functional futurism of a thousand rave and techno sects and sub-sects, and so on, and on...

But here is the thing: that imperative to produce instant, thrilling, fun music is always adhered to, and that gives it coherence. So the 1980s pop fizz of “All Nite” and the eye-popping rave mania of “Crying Flames” are both completely of a piece with one another, both unmistakably the product of the same very personal collection of influences. Despite its creation for sweaty loons, this can be appreciated off the dance floor too, albeit probably not in your favourite easy chair. Try it in the car: if a better antidote to the dreary, rock-dad Clarksonisation of the driving experience has been created I'd like to hear it. Be warned though, you may suddenly find yourself convinced you are piloting some kind of psychedelic fighter craft through hyperspace. You don't get that with Chris Rea...

Check out Glass Swords's (uncharacteristically subdued) title track:

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters