Track-By-Track: BSU #15
'Ceased trading' is what it says on Spillway's discogs page, making its 6-volume catalogue a short but very sweet statement, not unlike Derek Carr's original run of EPs. On my shelves I file Kellon's records alongside Carr, Lerosa and my small but treasured collection from D1 Recordings – mostly white producers from this side of the pond who were and are heavily inspired by mostly Black producers over that side, specifically in Detroit, Chicago and other cities in the Midwest.
Up to this 5th instalment, Kellon's tunes indulged in the kind of mid-tune left-turns and broken interludes that marked out early releases from Titonton Duvanté and Morgan Geist, whether on Dan Curtin's Metamorphic Records or in their electric collaboration on Phono. Geist said in his RBMA interview that this was because he got 'bored with grooves', something he had clearly resolved by the time he got around to Metro Area.
I'm not sure if the same boredom motivated Kellon's apparent flightiness on his earlier releases, but on SPILL05 he clearly found firm ground and the results are spectacular. 'Siphon' is an elegant and single-minded groove and melodic idea presented economically in less than 6 minutes, and it positively soars. The same is true for the rest of the EP, one of the best of 2020.
What next for Kellon? I can't wait to find out.
Kellon - Siphon (Spillway, 2020)
Note: this is an entry in the Track-By-Track series for my mix for Butter Side Up.
Track-By-Track is a series that looks back at records you will have heard in my mixes, one by one in the order they were played. Who made them, and when? How did I come across them? And what do they make me feel?