Quinoline Yellow: Colour Index 47005
Uchelfa

Luke Williams is not only the name behind Quinoline Yellow but also the manager (alongside associate Tom Balcombe) of Uchelfa Recordings, an imprint formed in 2005 to exclusively distribute releases through its online shop and Warp's Bleep operation. Williams is also a long-time SKAM associate with various EPs and a 2005 full-length Dol-Goy Assist having appeared on the label. Though Colour Index 47005 features few radical innovations or left-turns on the musical front, its six tracks are inarguably polished and rich in electronic detail. A title like “Close Pen Glin2” suggests an Aphex influence and the track's ammo-firing beat squelch only reinforces the connection. Still, more often than not, the typical Quinoline Yellow piece is an intricate, gleaming construction of clicking patterns, interwoven synth melodies, and voice interjections that opts for sanguine elegance over gloomy melancholia or frenetic beat madness, and typically does so in a style more kin to Ai Records than anything else. Though secondary in importance, cheeky titles like “Miniature Cockroach Cab” and “Bob Brigham's Gold Chariot” only add to the EP's charm.

October 2006