Above All is the latest collection curated from Erick Legrand’s archive, The Akashic Library Of Sound. Across the 12 tracks Legrand’s signature motifs remain intact. His music a mix of dub, electro, rock’n’roll and cult cinematic influences. 

Queer, a plucked and programmed Morricone / Leone-like score, conjures images of trouble lurking in the shadows of a Mexican border town. Calcutta features trebly, vintage Bollywood synth. The title track uses a skeletal rattle to trap, cage, celestial, ethereal angels, while sat astride a B-line reminiscent of John Carpenter’s Assault On Precinct 13 theme. Niric’s buliding wall of sound suggests `70s folk horror scares. Twisted, treated tremolo’d rockabilly twang accompanies near everything. Lending the bulk of the set a dark, bent sinister, David Lynch-ian air. 

Beats, while big, range from blunted, sleazy Depth Charge-like funk to wild `50s tiki lounge voodoo. For a fine example of the former, check the sonic strip show of Come, where porno moans and Rickenbacker slashing – straight from a Tarantino needle drop – ring out in a bass and reverb heavy space. For the latter, W.H.O.2 tumbles terrifically beneath Ghost Rider guitar. 

Buttle barges in, Legrand’s drum sticks swinging, rigid snares racing, summoning an early Bad Seeds intensity. Changeling jumps back in time to `80s downtown New York, with an ESG via LCD Soundsystem groove. Its crazy, searing shredding squealing like James Chance’s faux free-jazz skronk. 

The album closes with the slow, atmospheric Sacked Mood. Its drums brushed. Its bottom end boom like bionic contrabass. Serenaded by a melancholy reed and buzzing backward strings, it’s a suitable soundtrack for a bruised, dawn walk down sleepy Dickensian streets. Winding its way home hammered after a night spent at The Sabres Of Paradise’s Haunted Dancehall.

Erick Legrand’s Above All can be ordered directly from Bandcamp.