Knock Knock (Tunng Mix)/ Brave New World (Benge Mix), by The Accidental (7" on Static Caravan)

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Fripp and Eno, Gainsbourg and Vannier, Kuti and Allen – two’s company, and great musicians often travel in pairs. The Accidental revolves around the twin songwriter-producer pivot of Stephen Cracknell (Memory Band, Gorodisch, co-founder of Trunk Records) and Sam Genders (Tunng).

As a founder member of Tunng, Sam Genders is an extraordinary songwriter, melding Lewis Carroll’s flights of fancy with all the pathos of a 19th Century Russian novelist – a tragic-comic outlook on life and fascination with both the natural and unnatural, like Gogol with a guitar. With Tunng, his well-drawn tales weave in and out of the bobbing electronics, crafting electro-tinged folk songs which pulse and caress with equal measure, combining an easy melodicism with the band’s expansive touch.

Stephen Cracknell has a similarly attuned ear for the properties which link the acoustic and pastoral with the synthetic sounds of electronica, managing to conjure an organically simple fusion of elements which is defiantly modern. Under the moniker of the Memory Band, Cracknell’s sleight of hand has seen him essay that relationship between the traditional folk lament and the circular, glitchy stylings heard on his electronic output as Gorodisch.

Joining the pairing is Hannah Caughlin (musician/film-maker/graphic designer), who inspired the vocal arrangement on this single’s first side. Half of Fence Collective acolytes The Bicycle Thieves, she has also caught more than a few eyes as part of video-production partnership The Long Way Round. The line-up also features Liam Bailey, a songwriter with a knack for dusty acoustic grooves.

This seven-inch release marks the first airing of material by The Accidental, featuring remixes of two of the songs slated for inclusion on their forthcoming debut album, due in Spring 2008. Both tracks were chiselled into shape by recording vocal improvisations from Sam and Hannah, which were set to loops before conjuring new arrangements from the improvised elements. Much of the album, featuring contributions from Liam, was recorded in the same way.

Knock Knock is remixed by fellow Tunng lynchpin Mike Lindsay, the scratchy atmosphere and booming beats lending it a distinctly tribal feel, while bass frequencies lurch and stretch underneath plaintive vocals.

On the reverse side is the Benge remix of Brave New World, titled Brave New Sampler – a slice of blissful electronica akin to Four Tet sitting down for tea and scones with Animal Collective, while snaking rhythms rattle alongside cut-up vocals and odd percussive flourishes. Slip on the headphones and drift away.



Limited to 500 copies on seven inch wax only, housed in a facsimile harvest house bag with print.

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