Cult 48 - Underground Signals From An Unknown Place (2021)

At this point, if you haven’t heard of Cult48 then you’ve either been living in an anechoic chamber or the universe has been conspiring against you to keep things from you. If either of those possibilities applies to you then fret not, as not all is lost—yet another memory-inducing trip has landed from the mystery artist that likes to keep us on our toes.

Underground Signals from An Unknown Place thankfully have made their way above ground and are coming out of speakers everywhere. The transmission begins with “Agfa Qi” and spoiler alert—nothing has sounded quite so BoC since BoC themselves, just adding fuel to the fire of just who is getting this beautiful sound out there. To not only emulate with such accuracy the pads and warm-feelings of Scotland’s well-loved duo, to be able to accentuate and highlight in a truly modern fashion without detracting from the feelings, is a feat in itself.

Cult48 has taken a truly analytical approach to some very well-known releases (and some rather obscure ones) and has managed yet again to piece together what feels like a bunch of lost DAT tapes with up-to-date twists.

It’s not far into the release that things shift towards a darker and often up-tempo measure, showing that it’s not all about trying to respectfully-imitate some classics, rather create some new ones in the process. One could easily be mistaken they had their library on shuffle once “Other Side of the Coin” kicks in, but with a few continuous shakes of the head and shoulders you realize you’re part of something new and exciting.

There’s a reason that a lot of the tracks here will remind you of long-favorites and songs you may have forgotten about, existing now only as etches on the walls of your inner-ears—it’s because the elements that made them so memorable are just masterfully reproduced here. “Orange Moss 89” features rhythms-within-rhythms, well-processed hits and a beautiful fade out. “Glass in the Grass” sits somewhere in the Venn diagram of early Ochre, Yimino and hints of Jega—all three favorites of mine. It stops and starts with a second-half I refuse to turn the volume down for.

If you came to the party for vocal samples then you’re covered by both “Defang,” the final track “Hidden Intentions,” and “Proxima Centauri B,” all of which echo the existential and near-prophetic feelings of Boards of Canada’s sampling strengths. The latter track’s also got a drum track that really won’t let go—it’s up and down, fast and slow, and it’s going to make you wish you could perform interpretive dance a lot better than you can right now (I know you dance on your own when nobody’s watching).

My highlight has to be “Inqui.” I’m still reeling from listening to this and it makes me want to go and listen to something again. I don’t know what, I just know there’s something (or several things) that would mix perfectly with this and I just need to find them in my listening history somewhere. Key changes happen at the right time, there’s a solid pulse to it and it’s making me question things. Top job and hats off to Cult48 for this one.