MORE COLOUR

Sunplus is the alias of electronic producer Rob Shields, whose critically acclaimed first solo LP Green was released in 2017 on Yen. He followed this with the minimalist drone album Boketto and the abstract ambient house EP Splashy Splash, both released on his own imprint Art Therapy.

Sunplus marks a new direction for Shields, who with More Colour has created a vibrant and exhilarating collection of psychedelic, blissful electronics. Existing in an otherworldly place, More Colour lies somewhere between the real and the fantastical, molecular and galactic, between inner and outer space.

More Colour retains elements of house and techno in its DNA, but is more at home at an ecstatic ritual than a dance floor. Four-on-the-floor rhythms of Shields' earlier work have become the polyrhythmic patterns of African and Balinese music, alongside driving, motorik rock beats. The LP is influenced by Japanese experimental acts such as Expe and Seiichi Yamamoto, '70s German acts Neu! and Can, and the hypnotic productions of Shackleton.

Sonically More Colour is brighter than Shields' solo work, though with a similar sense of bliss; his familiar lo-fi sound is set aside in favour of sharper, fuller production. The six pieces are his most complex arrangements to date. Live drumming and percussion is layered with multiple sources of swirling sound textures and harmonics; high-frequency sine waves, flutes, granular synthesis, FX-laden guitars, and various field recordings including whistling birds in Indonesia, the sonar squeakings of a bat colony, and heavy rain in Tokyo.

The cover art takes inspiration from the abstract expressionist movement, portrayed by Matt James Healy.