Global Music Column – January

Rian Treanor and Ocen James – Saccades

Within the grid-based continuum of contemporary electronic music, Rotherham producer Rian Treanor is an experimental outlier. Shunning four-to-the-floor kick drums and repetitive synth melodies, Treanor trades in squeals, shrieks and scattergun bass, stretching formulaic structures into amorphous tracks that veer between danceablity and cacophony.

Treanor’s influences span British computer music innovators such as Autechre, Aphex Twin, and his father, Mark Fell; his 2019 debut, Ataxia, comprised fractal, bass-heavy edits, while 2020’s File Under UK Metaplasm grew from a residency at Ugandan label Nyege Nyege’s Kampala studio, where Treanor was introduced to east African hyperspeed dance styles such as singeli and balani.

Read the review in the Guardian.

[This piece was published on 06/01/23]