Biography
Obscure electronica outfit Lipsis are in love with their theremin, addicted to their knob twiddling and thoroughly disparaging of the whole 4/4 party banger thing. Their music is a collage of noise.
You have to be very good to get away with this kind of adherence to non form, but the myspace tracks are first rate, like, really good.
(Spoonfed - http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/artist/dj-music-1425/lipsis-11674/)
In the elliptical world of modern, non-vocal electronic music, Lipsis goes about constructing meaning. The Whitstable born-and-bred artist, currently residing in south-east London, has been at this game for the best part of five years, setting his sights on creating a series of mood-pieces which perfectly capture fleeting emotions, thoughts or concepts. Unwilling to be circumscribed or pigeonholed, the nature of Lipsis’ abstract compositions means they cannot be ascribed any form of readily definable meaning. But significantly, this very fact opens up an appeal to the listener in terms of a deeper, sensual understanding which goes well beyond spoken language, finally demonstrating the power of the imagination. To those who argue for a purely formalist approach to music – as among the ‘purer’, less representational of the art forms - Lipsis would counter that this is what his art is: essentially, the tracks are irreducible and limitless in their plurality, grasping at a hidden truth, whether brooding or life-affirming, waiting to be retrieved. Yet, as much important art tends to prove, the materiality and experience of the external world provide vital impetus for the artistic effort. It is only later that these ideas and feelings become subsumed in the final creation, a thing in itself transcending the sum of its constituent parts and motivations.
With two releases to date, ‘Modern Myths’ (November 2006) and ‘Community’ (February 2008), both released on the US-based net label en:peg digital (www.enpeg.com), Lipsis has achieved a significant amount in the years he’s been around. In his music, deep pad sounds cascade with blippy glitches and intricate drum rhythms creating a wonderful array of layered soundscapes. Much of the work's emotional strength is to be found in the careful interplay between competing drum textures and subtly apparent melodies - not conflicting, not wholly intimate - which exist in an unresolved tension, forever threatening to undermine the very unity the music wishes to affirm. Lipsis has been keen to address the diverse and disparate nature of the modern, urban milieu by going about organizing a regular night of electronic music in and around Whitstable and the east of Kent. The aim of the project has been to explore the potential of electronic music as a unifying force in an individualised modernity. The power of non-vocal music is that it can speak to everyone in a language which all can understand and on a powerful, primal level of existence. And yet, the interpretation among the crowd refuses to be pinned down: each time it is different and individual, lending an important sense of vibrancy and variety to the collective group.
Addicted to knob twiddling and thoroughly disparaging of the whole 4/4 party banger thing, Lipsis’ music is a collage of noise. It might not be to everybody’s tastes, but the ideas and urgency behind the creation embody the kind of passion and desire that so frequently in music nowadays, especially in the commercial sector, gets left by the wayside, substituted instead for short-term goals and materialistic, superficial ambitions. Check out Lipsis’ latest tracks, due for release on a new album, entitled ‘Simple Pleasures’, some point this year (2010), at www.myspace.com/lipsis. And be sure to watch this space for future Lipsis live and DJ performances.
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