Geoff Barrow and Ben Salibury are set to team up on new album ‘DROKK’.
With the wait for new Portishead material continuing, fans can content themselves with the work rate of Geoff Barrow. Heading Invada Records, a 2012 sampler revealed the existence of two new projects.
Quakers finds the producer indulging his love of hip hop, while ‘DROKK’ is perhaps an even more unusual project.
A joint collaboration with Ben Salisbury, the project finds its roots in seminal British comic 2000AD. Inspired by Judge Dredd, ‘DROKK’ is an imaginary evocation of the character’s hometown Mega City One.
Begun in late 2010, the project took a total of six months to complete. A composer for the BBC, Ben Salisbury worked around his day job, with Geoff Barrow contributing whenever he found time amongst his sundry other projects.
Not quite a definitive depiction of the city, ‘DROKK’ is instead a personal interpretation of life in Mega City One. The strip originated in the atmosphere of late 70s Britain, with the music on the new album seeming to draw from the same well.
The majority of tracks were created exclusively on the Oberhiem 2 Voice Synthesizer, originally released in 1975. Extremely sparse throughout, ‘DROKK’ uses little more than this solitary keyboard alongside some digitally manipulated and time-stretched performances of acoustic instruments.
2000AD seem flattered by the idea of an album soundtracking life in Mega City One… “2000 AD is delighted that Judge Dredd continues to inspire artists in the year of the character’s 35th anniversary, especially such high profile talents as Geoff and Ben. You can tell, from their vision of the Big Meg, that they’re massive fans of the strip.”
‘DROKK’ is due for release later this year.
