Daniel Avery - Tremor

This sixth full-length solo album by Daniel Avery is a confronting listen, in that it begs the question; why has he never scored a film before? In 2021, he put music to VOID, a short film about clubbing, but ‘Tremor’ is proof positive that he is ready to take on a feature; it is deeply atmospheric, and absolutely cinematic. It’s a heady, stylistically fluid listen, taking us through shoegaze (the outstanding ‘Rapture in Blue’, on which Cecile Believe’s vocal floats over a slow breakbeat), moody electronic rock (‘A Silent Shadow’, a reinvention for both Daniel and his collaborators, Hull outfit bdrmm) and a punishingly loud rework of the synthpop blueprint (‘The Ghost of Her Smile’).<\/p>”,”

His scope is thrillingly ambitious; one minute he’s toying with shredding pre-conceived notions of what dream-pop should sound like (‘Disturb Me’ is a highlight) and the next, he’s refining his own well-established approach to ambience, imbuing it with uncertainty and quiet menace on the likes of ‘Until the Moon Starts Shaking’ and ‘A Memory Wrapped in Paper and Smoke’. Even amongst the distinguished array of guests, there’s surprises; on ‘Greasy Off the Racing Line’, a spoken word turn by Alison Mosshart is enveloped in thick bass. As he signs to Domino, Avery has, somehow, made his most accessible and most idiosyncratic record to date, all at once.