Ulex is the 4th album of incisive electronic studies by Croydon’s Dale Cornish for the ever-intriguing Entr’acte label following their Glacial, Fleshpile Sister, and Xeric LPs.  His latest deconstruction/exploration of “a/rhythm, space, silence and pulse” presents seven Patterns in which, through varying, economical strategies and processes, he dislocates our sense of rhythmic anticipation and toys our spatial awareness.
The results are playfully elusive but, could also be described as awkward and anxious - finding and occupying an ambiguously fluctuating space between shivering, gamelan-esque rhythmelodies, frozen timbres and reflective harmonic resonance. It feels like the work of someone who’s spent a lot of time in clubs and dancing to electronic music, and who needs to probe those experiences farther to understand their properties and meanings for his own personal gratification. And luckily enough we get to hear his findings, too.

From the stereo-strafing gamelan of Pattern 1,  thru the recursive maze of Pattern 2, to the Florian Hecker-esque vocal studies of Pattern 5, we’re invited to read/listen/dance between the lines, all seemingly preparing us for the album’s extended closer Pattern 7 where the duration really allows his arrhythmic pulses to recalibrate your dancing feet with an almost brownian flow, perhaps best taken as a far more subtle, maybe even British parallel to the rhythmic ambiguity and mutations of Arca or the Janus crew, or even the the metallic dub moires of Phork and Co La.