ormally a one-man home studio operation, the Astral Social Club swelled to a trio for their 2006 Subcurrent Festival appearance. Recruited for this show by Club Chairman Neil Campbell (now ex-Vibracathedral Orchestra) were Richard Youngs and Tirath Singh Nirmala. Captured on disc this is yet another incredible sounding diversion in this project’s numbered CD-R series.

Unlike the artwork of its nine predecessors, this forgoes the bright coloured card and workingman’s club sign for a more rough-and-ready feel. Housed in a spray painted sleeve with an I-don’t–want-to-rip-this paper seal, it already has a tarnished, back-of-the-rack look. Though it sounds like one extended piece, the album is divided into four tracks by its obvious lulls.

Throughout the project’s evolution, Campbell has generated an impressive palette of styles and sounds to play with. While #10 moves rhythmically with purpose, it still shuns straightforward beat work. Tirath’s may be signed up for hand percussion but he works it on a tonal level, the rhythm instead coming from the squelching, shimmery pulses.

The flexibly ribbed throb that opens “One” avoids taking the obvious route of getting a huge beat to slam down on top of it. Still, there’s an air of expectancy in the bursting sound as it glitters in an amalgamation of digital and analogue. The music roars out like born-free insectoid techno, combining a forward persistence and a freedom of movement. Looped wind instrument parts and screams soon metamorphose into a shiny hard shell of sounds in the mix.

It’s possible at times to hear the direct analogue origins of the instrumentation that inhabit this release, the pixelated smoke clearing to reveal a voice, horn, or piece of identifiable FX. Whether Youngs is processing Singh and Campbell’s output or creating independent sounds is impossible to tell; whichever way these guys are forming, it works.

The dying beautiful seconds of the songs give way to the slow rise of the next piece whose soft beginnings can give way to harsher saw-like waves. These mid sections (of “Three,” especially) situate the wind instruments/sounds in the foreground and feature clearer circular drone parts. The recurring chimes against the harsher squall provide the most gorgeous sections of the whole disc.

Campbell has invented a diverse language and claimed an aural freedom for his Astral Social Club. This live take sees it reach thicker, heavier sounds while still retaining his intuitive constantly melodic vision.