Recondite artist, Ben Mercer and musician/producer OKI have been careful to shroud their new collaboration, RCSA, in mystique. Scant evidence, information, interviews or press exist. We do however know that the duo are from the UK and that they produce some, quite, intriguing, dramatic music.
The four-track Captain single features three original tunes and a remix: all buzzing and resonating with a cooing, vapourous wave of angelic electronica. Captain itself is an edgier, more gilded Hurts that flirts with the cluttering suffused oriental soundscapes of Sakamoto. Mercer adds a bare, haunting falsetto that sounds like it might evaporate at any moment upon the tempered barracking drums.
Eraser era Thom Yorke is alluded to on the hallowed, shuffling, Throne, as Mercer’s embittered pleas flutter over a hand-clapping dubstep shimmy. The musical palette shifts again on the junkyard DnB, Pretty. Speed-shift and bit-cruncher effects twist and corrode Mercer’s vocals whilst a trembling, piano stabs out a repetitive motif. Tarn turn-in a more soulful remix by way of David Arnold; albeit with sorrowful smatterings of glitchy awkwardness.
The overall quality is good, and promising, though the last track Pretty is perhaps a little to effete. It’s rather refreshing in some ways that RCSA have left their music to do the talking, let’s just hope they keep it that way.
30/04/2012
[Rating: 3.5]
