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The Polarities

by Watch Repair

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    plus PDFs of art / tracklist / credits.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £5 GBP  or more

     

  • CD-R 2nd Edition (with bonus disc)
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    with revised artwork
    in sealed PVC
    with 'THR EP'
    3" CD-R sampler
    watchrepair.bandcamp.com/album/thr-ep
    (inc. download code)

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Polarities via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.
2.
3.
Cassilda 04:29
4.
5.
Vulture Line 03:21
6.
7.
Waterfields 05:44
8.
Snakehold 05:05
9.
Resaeld 06:40

about

"The Polarities is an engrossing mix of acoustic composition (predominantly picked strings and chimes, though the instrumentation is incredibly dense), musique concrète, and some found sound and serial elements. Plucks, decaying chimes, creaks, harsh bursts of static, slides rubbed on wound strings, spectral radio broadcasts, rumbling bass, unnerving electronic textures, beautiful guitar picking, all intermittently smothered in drones, by turns ominous and shimmering.

"Much of contemporary acoustic composition is a little trite, emptily sentimental, romantic, and twee. The Polarities entirely avoids the pitfall of mawkishness, but it is much more, and much more affecting, than an exercise in composition. Watch Repair are interested in texture and tone and embrace dissonance as a counterpoint to melody. They make difficult music that requires and rewards attentive listening. But also music that is mesmerizing and genuinely moving, often eerie and haunting."

(Timothy J. Jarvis, Writer of Antic Fiction)

timothyjjarvis.wordpress.com/2016/09/15/the-polarities-watch-repair/

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"This is a patient album: not of obvious songs, but an avid bifocal concentration. Occasionally an old LP is sampled (“Karlukian Frequencies”), and suddenly there is melody, structure, light: a distraction to the lonely repairman, stealing a temporary gaze out the window before returning to his project. When other sources enter ~ for example, a bleep on the subsequent track ~ one wonders at the nod to accessibility, however small. But for the most part, the set offers delicate drafts and careful constructions, content to let the listeners fill in the blanks.

"For clock and watch fans, eager to discern any hint of their favorite sources, the go-to pieces are the separate parts of “Counterspace”, the chimes up front and center, wobbly yet unbowed. A dark bass enters toward the end of the second piece, form coalescing into shape. In subsequent tracks, things start to wind down, the attempt at repair thwarted by a clog in the gears, a rusty sprocket, a muted clapper. But if it were repaired, would it sound so alluring?"

(Richard Allen, A Closer Listen)

acloserlisten.com/2016/09/24/watch-repair-the-polarities/

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bonus track :

karluk (mix) 26:17

soundcloud.com/watch_repair/karluk-mix-july-2016

credits

released September 1, 2016

instruments :

guitars, dulcimer, thumbtack gourd, chimes, bass, recorder,
jub-jub, piano, reed organ, pseudulcimer, pocket cello,
cellorgan, casio, monotron, monochord, autoharp, ektara,
glasswork, wire, rattles, knocks and other percussives

wash & polish :

sw radio frequencies (2)
ms20 (2 4 5 6 8)
minotron synths (8 9)

record snippets :

polyphon/regina (2)
viola da gamba (3)

guests :

ezra star : additional slide (8)
emil v : strings (7)
solo wilks : bleep source (3 5)
dan b : autoharp fragment (3)

typography & design :

john coulthart

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Watch Repair UK

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