Lastminuteman was the first artist to release on Dublin-based wherethetimegoes, and if you want to get an idea of the label’s woozy, sprite-like, and impressively eclectic discography, his work wouldn’t be a bad place to start.
The Done Thing flitters across drill, drone, and techno with a detached, melancholic gaze, as if soundtracking a sleepless night. Tracks like no angel exemplify this, with an understated but catchy flow, and an energy building seamlessly and with subtle, surgical precision. on me life is concocted with an even more dub-soaked palette which gravitates towards spacey contemplation. Both deliver something of the clever hypnagogia of classics like Endtroducing, or even Burial’s portraits of the gloaming, transposed to something a little more skagged-out and generation drill.
There’s nothing pretentious about the ambient tracks here. cabbaged patch serves up drone in the vein of classic Sähko Recordings, well-executed and sounding a little like the sleeping breaths of a spaceship heard from its engine rooms. Closer ready to die gives the album its most direct exhibit of beauty, as harsh synthetic strings suffuse into a luminous, organic, and blushingly dreamlike soundscape.
Sandwiched between the two is can’t sleep, the album’s longest track: here we get something like pure techno, with the same hardware-driven pulses from before twisted into a convincing groove. One of the album’s most ephemeral highlights is the moment of intrigued satisfaction as the tape-echoed piano, which curls through descending notes throughout, finally warps into something resembling bassline before vanishing into the ether.
Words: Finghín Little
Lastminuteman – The Done Thing
