Large Hall, Low Ceiling

After the nocturnal South London streets of the Kept LP in 2015 comes Casually Here's 'Large Hall, Low Ceiling EP on Algebra, taking a step onto the dancefloor into a more brightly lit technicolor world.

At the end of 2016, after realising that he hadn't taken a month off in over ten years, and wanting to see what it felt like not making music for a while, Nic took a couple month's break including a month of solo travelling in India. When he got back in the studio, the EP came out almost fully formed, all three tracks in a row. "It felt both like something I wouldn't have made without the break and something that I've been wanting to make for a while; a record that works on the dance floor while retaining all the storytelling psychedelic weirdness and world building that I love," explains Nell.

Large Hall, Low Ceiling takes its inspiration from diverse musical strands and brims with atmospheric electronica. The title of coral coloured EP opener Peroration means 'the concluding part of a speech, typically intended to inspire enthusiasm in the audience', capturing the feeling of the track and ending with "what feels to me like an extended version of the THX logo sound".

The EP was recorded using analogue synths and includes field recordings made whilst out in India. "The verses of Kerosene feature an amazing bus horn as arpeggiated stabs that I recorded on a sleeper bus in Rajasthan. It took forever to capture it as the horn was used really unpredictably and I was both running out of space on my phone, having to repeatedly wipe the recording and start over, and fighting sleep." The verses are followed by quintuplet synth pads making a counter rhythm against the 4/4 kicks in the pre-chorus before the ebullient release of the arpeggiators in the chorus. The EP closes with the head down momentum of Keep Rolling complete with light thunderstorm between barely-in-time rising stabs, tripping over themselves to the rousing break in the clouds of a horn section at the end.

"Before finishing the EP, I played it out live in Lisbon in a club at two in the morning and was very pleased to find that it didn't break the dancefloor." The show marked the release of Portuguese producer azul-revolto's LIVID EP, released as a hand stamped marbled white label transparent 12" on Algebra featuring Substance, a collaboration between the pair. azul-revolto returned the favour and came over to London to play the physical EP Launch / Algebra Label Party at Rye Wax.

The physical release was a limited run of fifty jars of Passion Fruit Scotch Bonnet Chilli Sauce. "It's a really intense, unusual flavour as it bridges sweet, sour, savoury and chilli, and suits the playfulness of the EP. It's something I haven't come across in the wild before and plays with the idea of giving people an unusual experience, and the idea that unlike music, people still buy food. I've been making chilli sauces for years and this is one of my favourites so it was fun to have an excuse to get hold of 500 passion fruits and get this one out."