SPARKLE DIVISION レコード& CD

Review: William Basinski and Preston Wendel offered something a little different when they commended their Sparkle Division project in 2020. Rather than Basinski's best-known ambience and minimalism, this project deals in a luxuriant lounge funk shot through with surrealism and strapped to imagined scenarios. On Foxy, the scene is set as an exclusive Hollywood cocktail party in the late 60s with a particularly spicy punch going round. The music doesn't attempt to ape a 60s sounds like you would expect, but instead deals in varied funk-fuelled grooves which come on like library music having been dipped in aforementioned lysergic party juice. It's smooth and salty in equal amounts, and just weird enough to keep you curious as the narrative of the album unravels and we wind up at some surprisingly nimble d&b programming to see the story out.