Andrew Thompson reviews the texturally rich and rhythmically complex new album from Sam Eastgate
Domino
Released: 05.06.20
GENE is the second release from former Late of the Pier’s Sam Eastgate under the LA Priest moniker and it’s a stereotypically ambitious album. Texturally rich and rhythmically complex, it slinks through the opening five tracks with huge dollops of Prince-tinged syncopation before rainfall fades into Sudden Thing and Monochrome. The change in weather marks an all together more ominous timbre more akin to Autechre or Amnesiac’s darker moments in the album’s second half.
Long time friend and co-producer, Erol Alkan, has previously described Eastgate as a chameleon of sorts, able to regurgitate and refine the most finite details through his own filter. When heard in this context GENE feels less schizophrenic than on first listen and is better for it.
