by David Wilikofsky
Coby Sey made a name for himself collaborating with a who’s who of the UK underground, from Mica Levi and Tirzah to Dean Blunt. This work (along with a slim solo discography, which has largely made up of singles to date) built excitement around his debut album, Conduit, which Sey has been working on for nearly five years. It was worth the wait; perhaps because of its extended gestational period, it feels like Sey has arrived fully formed. It’s music that feels free in every sense of the word, the rare album whose pure expression feels unencumbered by any preconceived notions of genre or songcraft.
Conduit opens with a spoken word monologue. Sey’s words start out crisp and clear, but as the track progresses they are slowly enveloped by clattering beats and icy synths until they become little more than a whisper in the background. The surrounding din transforms them from words into little more than noise, a first taste of the fluidity that animates the album. Across its forty minute runtime genres melt into one another, the boundaries between experimental composition and traditional songcraft blur, language loses and regains its meaning at will. Mantras of affirmation and unity are repeated to the point that the cadences of Sey’s delivery become more prominent than the words themselves; claustrophobic soundscapes eventually blossom into moments of tranquility. It’s music that feels liminal in every sense of the word, a sonic world that not only accepts but is animated by these types of transitory states.
There are clear influences on Sey’s sound; the more straightforward, pop oriented moments bring to mind 90’s trip hop pioneers like Tricky, while the more atmospheric passages feel aligned with contemporaries like Space Afrika. But Sey is also very much doing his own thing, making music far more strange and jagged than any of these sonic touchpoints. It’s a world where muted trip hop can be instantly torn apart by industrial techno, and one where claustrophobic noise will suddenly congeal into a song. It’s this fearless approach to sound that keeps the album engaging from start to finish; though you never quite know what is coming next, you’ll inevitably find yourself eagerly anticipating the album’s next left turn.