Steve Bates - An Infinite Antenna [Constellation 195]

Another new Constellation Records release which has been also put out on the circuit on September 25th, 2k26 is "An Infinite Antenna", the latest longplay outing by Montreal-based composer and producer Steve Bates who's been active on the experimental music solo circuit for roughly two decades now. With the labels cat.no. 195 Steve Bates caters a sonic menu comprised of eleven brand new pieces rolled out over the course of roughly 41 minutes which makes the individual pieces unusually short for this kind of experimental music, a deliberate artistic decision which harks back to his initial roots connected and formative years spent invlvd in the Anarcho Punk x Post Hardcore scene. This being said the album opens with the epicly titled "Pink Pink Pink Pink... Pink Pink" which provides a blueprint of scintillating, neon-chromatic and surely Vaporwave x Seapunk infused aesthetics in Ambient followed by the heavy, yet still harmonic guitar distortion drone of "Green As A Ghost" which leads into deep, yet vaguely nebulous Post-Postrock meets nocturnal Piano Ambient soundcapes backed by scattered, sparsely arranged percussions before "Battles And Sieges And Street Trees" takes crackly, slightly wobbly vintage tape sound and pairs it with inward looking piano minimalisms which could provide the beginning and early stages of a Hainbach piece whereas "Waste, Songs Of The World" provides heavy, muscular, yet also scattered and clattering skeletal percussion works stuck somewhere in between Illbient, fragmented echoes of PostRock, Dark Jazz and spatial, yet hollow and mind numbing Field Recordings of nothingness. The subsequently following "Easier Sad Than Done" brings on an amalgamation of muffled guitar exercises and rumbling subdued Noize layers as well as worn out disappearing melodic fragments, "Mountain Scene" is layering deeply melancholic harmonics with ever intensifying subsurface Noize movements whilst "Swiss Apartment Layouts" deals with more decaying harmonic motifs and, once again, a worn out and hissing tape aesthetic, this time paired with echoes of echoes of a soon disappearing slow-motion beat before "Decades Of River Widths" serves somewhat of a Deep Listening Music micro collage incorporating spatial Dark Ambient, electro-acoustics and the signature sound of, once again, old and not taken care of magnetic tape recordings. Furthermore we see "Disaster Loans" on a surprisingly hopeful and glistening tip even though its rather brutal, agitated and intense drums suggest violence, "Corporate Activity, Ancient Shipwrecks" seem to fall together in a beautifully chiming Ambient melody soon falling victim to steady ongoing erosion whereas "Lettre D'Amour A Fly Pan Am" not only pays homage to one of the early Constellation Records signings but also, as a singular occasion, probably provides fodder for the most adventurous DJs on Braindance-informed and deeply experimentalist savvy dancefloors which, rather unfortunately, rarely exist anymore these days before "Swamps And Factories" provides closure in an almost static, midrange focused Drone Ambient manner backed by clearly structured pulses and ever forward progressing internal shifts and layerings. Quite a beautiful album for all dedicated fans and followers of Deep Listening Music which at times feels like a random collection of fragments, a collage of ideas on a lost cassette tape, suddenly resurfaced and - in all its muffled and dusty vintage sounding glory - now providing a document of a forgotten time. Probably, and in a most positive manner, the late 90s with all their experimental underground labels, self-released print runs and a thriving scene that has been wiped out by a streamlined sound aesthetic and loudness wars. Therefore important. Get.

Album artwork on Instagram!