Higher Authorities – in session for Marc Riley – BBC 6 Music – October 11, 2016 – BBC 6 Music –
Heading into the weekend with another BBC session – this one for Marc Riley and featuring Higher Authorities in session from October 11, 2016.
According to Paul Simpson of AllMusic:
Higher Authorities is a trippy, dub-influenced side project of Adrian “Ade” Blackburn and Jonathan Hartley from Liverpool post-punk band Clinic. The duo’s work is a bit more loose and relaxed than their main outfit, surrounding midtempo drum machine beats with swirling keyboards and echo effects. Their debut full-length Neptune was mixed by legendary dub producer Adrian Sherwood, and was released by Domino in April of 2016.
Their online presence is vague, but the band apparently comprises Ade Blackburn and Hartley of cult art-rockers Clinic, with dub icon Adrian Sherwood behind the mixing desk. His presence weighs heavily, especially on ‘Monocle Man’ with its squelching, off-kilter beat and ‘The Clone’, which simmers with tension. In places, the duo lay things on a little too thick, like on lead ‘Colour’, which threatens to collapse under the weight of its own rapid move through the synth gears, or the messy closing one-two of ‘Decades’ and ‘Neptune’.
Those of you not familiar with their side-project Clinic will probably not be familiar with High Authorities, but here’s a good place to start. Not for all tastes, but worth an open listen.
As you know, we’ve suspended indefinitely our ads in order to make Past Daily a better experience for you without all the distractions and pop-ups. Because of that, we’re relying more on your support through Patreon to keep us up and running every day. For as little as $5.00 a month you can make a huge difference as well as be able to download all of our posts for free (news, history, music). You’ll see a banner just below. Click on that and become a subscriber – it’s easy, painless and does a world of good.
