Cornish, Dale

Cornish, Dale

Cut Sleeve

Halcyon Veil

London’s avant prism-pusher Dale Cornish debuts for Rabit’s Halcyon Veil imprint with an acute distillation of pointillist rhythms, stark noise and contemporary politics in the barbed bouquet of Cut Sleeve, following a multi-pronged attack on 2016 which saw him issue singles with Where To Now? and The Wormhole, plus a remix of Billie Ray Martin and a guest vocal on Powell’s Sport album.  Stripped to the barest truth of biting drums and his own vocals rent within acres of negative space, when compared with his run of solo aces for Entr’acte and The Wormhole, the six tracks of Cut Sleeve conversely amount to some of the most corporeal works in Cornish’s solo catalogue whilst serving to neatly intersect the Halcyon Veil aesthetic from both mutual and personally developed perspectives.   Dale wears his politics explicitly and suggestively on Cut Sleeve. Starting with the nagging reminder that “in 2016 it is illegal to be gay in approximately 75 nations and regions around the world” delivered in acrid noise and a slurred tone that makes sure the message rings out slowly and uncomfortably, the session presents in reductionist take on UK and US club music in brittle, certain, and uniquely, drily f*nked-up terms, taking on skeletal steppers templates in Cut and chasmic darkness on LW or Vauxhall, before feeding his own, bestial vocals back into the mix with a blend of glossolalic deviance, cryptic poetry and stoic funk in Emperor Ai.