Weekly mp3 #120: Motion - Issin M

Part of a decent compilation called Vibrating Portraits, all of which is free to download.

Ambience. A single held chord repeats over and over, very gradually softening. Room noise, scuffing and scraping is slowly replaced with delicate, bubbling melodic elements. About the last minute or so is a fade-out, so it's not intended as something to listen to on the move.

I first heard Kingston, London producer Motion on one of Fat Cat records' split 12"s. The other side was by Matmos, but I've returned to the Motion tracks a lot more regularly and have picked up a couple of the guy's CDs. I really like 'Issin M' and the tracks on that split 12, but it turns out he's a bit patchy - some of it's just a bit dull, frankly. Always hard to say what makes one piece of enjoyable or engaging or what, especially if trying defend some drifting "background noise" with none of the foreground. So all I can say is with quite a few of Motion's tracks the vibe is not there, man.