The King is Chaines’ commanding return to Slip: a claustrophobic, dank book of abstracted torch songs, festering in an uneasy grandeur.
The LP collects work diligently amassed in the 3 years since the British composer/producer’s Slip debut ‘OST’, which housed contributions from ‘cellist Oliver Coates and artist Mary Stark within melancholic, uncannily tactile productions. The intervening period has seen Chaines collaborate extensively with the London Contemporary Orchestra, with commissions performed at The Roundhouse, Union Chapel, Printworks, and Tate Modern.
The King sees Chaines’ eccentric, singular language grasp a fresh immediacy and emotive potency. Chaines’ voice is more present than ever – creepy, seductive and pained on the Scott-Walker-does-ASMR of “Eraserhead”, and diva-ghost of “Population 5120” – and their arrangements dissolve the symphonic into freakish forms – “Carpathia” and “Knockturning” spike pastoral organs and flutes with industrial menace and convulsing beatwork.
"Three years ago, Chaines’s debut OST, featuring Oliver Coates on cello and the voice of Mary Stark, was an early jewel in the crown of the imprint. The King represents the sum of Manchester based composer/producer Cee Haines’s work since. And what a piece of work it is. Heaving and shimmering with the strings and winds of The London Contemporary Orchestra, slaphappy with its own electronic convolutions and twisted rhythmatics, vast in scope, rich in execution. The King could stand its own in any royal rumble." - The Wire
Available as 320k MP3 or 24bit FLAC
Tracklisting:
1. For Your Own Good - 02:46
2. Knockturning - 04:20
3. DOWN - 10:19
4. Population - 04:33
5. Airship - 04:34
6. Carpathia [Boss Monster Edit] - 06:36
7. MARY - 04:08
8. Eraserhead - 06:46
CHAINES (Cee Haines) is a musician based in Manchester, UK, who writes surreal and fantastical electronica and electro-acoustic music. Their recent album, 'The King', was receieved with enthusiastic critical praise; it was ranked in FACT magazine's top 25 albums of 2018's first quarter, was made Boomkat's album of the week, and Robert Barry of The Wire called it 'vast in scope, rich in execution'. As well as their solo electronic work, CHAINES' has also worked extensively with the London Contemporary Orchestra. Commissions for the LCO have always been electro-acoustic in nature, using both small and orchestral scale ensembles with electronics, premiering works at venues such as The Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms 2018), Tate Modern (Uniqulo's Tate Lates series 2017) and the Roundhouse (Ron Arad's Curtain Call 2016). They have been in residency with SAY award winner Anna Meredith and Grammy Award winner Imogen Heap, improvising, performing and producing audio and video. They graduated The Royal Northern College of Music in 2013 with a 1st class honours in Composition and Contemporary Music. They also identify as non-binary, so the 'they' in this biography is not a grammatical error.
