Fila Brazillia have taken a trip through their significant back catalogue and singled out all the stuff that’s devoid of drums. The resulting album, Beatless, is an incredibly cohesive collection. You’d never guess that over 3 decades separate some of the pieces. Despite being recorded at different times, on different gear, under different influences, the music dovetails together perfectly, seamlessly, to form one long daydream-like drift. 

This is the Brazillia boys, Steve Cobby and David McSherry, at their most minimal, and experimental. Synthesising serene soundscapes, built around lovingly layered, slowly evolving loops. Several of the tunes are relatively short sketches, but they segue, as I said, into a greater whole. Where glacial chimes, echoed in Robin Guthrie-esque reverb, serve to serenade folk finger picking filigree, fragments of country, slide guitar (see Sugarplum Hairnet and Midnight Friends), and fluffy clouds of sustain provide a calm, comfy cushion for improvised, spiralling sine waves (have a listen to Ambient Apehorn). Yesternight has a sharp, sparse, morning stillness. Conjuring the quiet of that first solitary coffee, or smoke. A clearing of the mind, before facing the new day ahead. Spores is, appropriately, a mellow mycelial movement. A tender trickling tickles July 23. The strings on Van Cleef make me think of Johnny Harris and Lee Hazlewood’s eccentric arrangements, rather the Ennio Morricone spaghetti western scores suggested by its title. New Chaos is submerged and aquatic. A soft focus theme for a seductive mermaid. Beyond The End features twisted, treated tones, that mutate and morph into a rain-like pitter patter. There are modular drones, and the odd sequence that races, in counterpoint, like Klaus Schulze’s on Michael Shrieve’s Transfer Station Blue. Moods and ideas are mixed and matched, borrowed from Harold Budd, Cluster, The Orb, and their repurposing of strange public service announcements. Everything sort of leads, sets the scene, for the seminal, stone cold classic, Subtle Body, which brings the LP to a close. 

There are no standouts as such, but DJs looking to score a sunset or sunrise should, perhaps, plumb for the longest, and newest, track, Tone Poem. Its simple electronic pulse rising and falling as a smokey saxophone solos, weaves in and out, winding a romantic path, before a second synth, its line sparkling, intricate, twinkles in the twilight. Creating something most definitely Cafe del Mar worthy.

Fila Brazillia’s Beatless can be ordered directly from Bandcamp.