In the spirit of my recent post on Peter Challoner (perhaps a sub-thread should continue as a 'critique' of current U.K. electronic/ambient musicians...?), I present to you another artist all of you should inquire about herewith, namely one Jez Creek, who records as Modulator-ESP (also the name of his Hypnos moniker).
Having known Jez the past few years, specifically after spending time with him at the last two Electro-Music festivals here in the Northeast U.S., I can assuredly vouch for his most accomplished chops as one of the U.K.'s prime synth experimentalists. Jez effortlessly flows between various genres/worlds, forging new takes on the old Berlin School axiom as Astrogator (alongside fellow synthesist Steve Humphries, aka Creator, yet another extremely talented bloke) as well as a member of U.K. space music 'supergroup' Quadra (featuring John Sherwood, of ambientlive.com, and Brendan Pollard). But it as Modulator-ESP where he really makes his mark—ESP stands for Experimental Synthesis Project for a reason, mainly due to Jez's stubborn refusal to kowtow to any current/past trends in either 'old-school' or 'new-school' electronica. Live performances find him twisting variants of
Zeit-era TD into thick, rubbery skeins of sound that suggest Robert Henke and even Namlook's more exploratory excursions. More often than not, however, his music defies easy pigeonholing; he's one of a few synthesists who dig deep into their machines to yield what electronic music does best: unearth hitherto unheard-of sounds, motifs, textures, and progressions.
Jez offers alot of his music as free downloads, but he also has a number of recordings available, which I strongly urge beg investigation, via his site:
http://modulator-esp.co.uk/home.htm. Many folks trawling this & other forums seem to desire things 'new', 'different', 'uncategorizable', hell, even 'provocative'—Jez's music certainly fits the bill. Let the discussion/opinions begin.
