It’s been almost nine years since the notorious English electronic music producer, composer and DJ, Daniel Avery, carved his way onto the vast scene of dark, experimental techno music. His 2013 release of ‘Drone Logic’ explored an early minimalistic New Jersey garage sound that UK club music once grew upon – rumbling acid house and groundbreaking Detroit techno. Drone Logic was a groundbreaking release, with ‘Native Response’ being added to the famous Grand Theft Auto radio playlist alongside ‘Reception’. Since the release of Drone Logic, Avery has released three more albums which explore music as escapism. Though his new 5th studio album ‘Ultra Truth’ released via Phantasy Sound explores a different approach to making distant-sounding experimental techno music.
In contrast to his previous studio albums, Ultra Truth offers a different listening experience of eerie yet beautifully sounding sonics coated in reverbs. Written in his Thames side studio with collective help from friends such as HAAi, Kelly Lee Owns, SHERELLE, Jonnie Standish (HTRK), and James Massiah, Ultra Truth is about optimism and realism rather than escapism. He writes, “Ultra Truth finds me in a different place to where I’ve been before. My previous albums have all focused on the idea of music being an escape or a distraction from the world but that’s not the case this time. For me this album is about looking directly into the darkness, not running away from it. There’s a way through these times but it involves keeping the important people in your life close to you and navigating the noise together. This is an intentionally heavy and dense album, the hooks often hidden in dusty corners. I’m no longer dealing in a misty-eyed euphoria. Ultra Truth is a distorted fever dream of a record: riled, determined and alive.”
On ‘Higher’, jungle-like drums throughout bring a new type of rave energy to Avery’s compelling sound. Featuring jungle & breakbeat DJ SHERELLE, it’s clear to see the sound across Ultra Truth is diverse and explores Avery’s broader music taste. In creating this LP, Avery delved back into his earlier musical interests of Portishead, Nick Cave and Mogwai, expressing a more dark and experimental side with its thunderous energy of leftfield rave.
‘Lone Swordsman’ comes as an elegiac tribute to the late acid house legend and renowned remixer Andrew Weatherall, with juggernaut breakbeats inspired by the Weatheralls’ most sublime moments. “Andrew was an enormously important figure in my life. It’s been said about him so many times, but Andrew was someone who did things entirely on his own terms, an outsider through and through. He was a punk rocker as much as he was a techno DJ. I’ve always held on to what he taught me which was to offer a true expression of who you are at all times. That’s the ultimate goal. If this record sounds like it comes from a more shadowy place, that’s what it is and that’s who I am.”
Ultra Truth is a beautiful contrast of sounds and genres that all come together in seemingly natural harmony – with warming yet eerie soundscapes on tracks such as ‘New Faith’, ‘The Slow Bullet’, ‘Ache’ and ‘Overflowing With Escape’ to the more experimental techno rhythms and breakbeats on ‘Higher’, ‘Low Swordsman’ and ‘Chaos Energy’. The journey of sounds brings you an ecstatic feeling of boundary-pushing electronics that presents a burning sense of hope.
Ultra Truth is out now on all streaming platforms.
