Aux Creux des Vagues, Mon Visage10. aMute - Aux Creux des Vagues, Mon Visage
Half a decade ago, before starting the Stilll label, gathering collaborators, and morphing the aMute project into a vocal-dominated fuzz-rock collective, Belgium’s Jerome Deuson was recording laptop electronica with occasional guitar, and this twelve-minute piece was his finest moment. The track begins with a crackly sample that recalls sleigh bells and wind chimes, then transforms into a three-headed chimera: a languid, ambient passage that resembles The Cure, followed by a confident bass refrain reminiscent of New Order, topped off by a percussion-and-drone segment that still sounds like nothing else on the market. Two bars of singing children round things out, adding to the measured, moon-in-a-puddle absurdity. They just don’t make tracks like this anymore, but then again, they never did before either: it’s lightning in a bottle. (Richard Allen)