Benjamin Walsh: Solo Flight | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- Do you remember The Bird? I was rather surprised to discover that -without even having to plunge into some hours long deep-dive- the internet does. I thought I’d be getting a million returns for Charlie Parker and bugger-all else, but lo, right at the top of my search is a distinctly web 1.5 bio recalling the festival-hopping highlights of the Australian electronic duo. I remember from some time not particularly long after the turn-of-the-millenium, catching the pairing of Simon Durrington (on keys) and Ben Walsh (on drums) looking only slightly out-of-place at The Woodford Folk Festival: a cacophony of drum-backed electronica emerging from somewhere in the middle of the seven day fug. I was quite into the sounds of the UK club scene at the time and I recall my surprise when Walsh stood up from his stool, crossed his drumsticks over his head and said “are you ready for some DRUM AND BASS!” Blanching in the way only a pinch-faced cultural gatekeeper can, I thought -in scene appropriate lingo- “that’s a bit naff, innit?”

You know what? I stand by my statement. I feel like Walsh and Durrington didn’t quite get it. Lots of people feel the same about my own musical inclinations however and another thing I can tell you, there’s nothing like spending an obsessive amount of time getting familiar with a thing to get a whole lot better at it.

I’m not sure what’s going on with The Bird these days; probably nothing? I do seem to get periodical Bandcamp updates from Ben Walsh though and without any great expectations I fired up the latest, Solo Flight, for a listen. What a difference twenty years can make. Right up the top of his -much more recent- bio, it states that he’s been playing live d’n’b and jungle for over two decades; it really shows. The heyday of jungle passed before that of d’n’b and the more unimaginative purveyors of the sound continued banging out extremely repetitive, four-to-the-floor fare long after I’d gone elsewhere looking for innovative beats. It’s a genuine pleasure then, to hear the frenetic, junglist syncopation of Walsh’s live drums flying all over the shop from go-to-whoa on Solo Flight.

Simply mustering the energy to bang out this kind of craziness on a kit, rather than relying on the traditional technology is a noteworthy feat. There’s a reason why -though you’ll run across live hip hop bands- there are almost no live jungle outfits. More than just a salute to the sinuous muscles and twitching synapses required, this is a most welcome return to the greatness of jungle. Although what you hear here is not the overwrought majesty of someone like Goldie, instead Solo Flight is a collection of comparatively economical cuts that draw on the breezy influences of the jazzy and ambient ends of the genre. There’s also quite a lot of b-grade, golden-age sci-fi sampling thrown in for flavour; perhaps there’s a concept album, lurking somewhere beneath the surface? There are also exotic flavours: samples of sitar or Central European strings that cut through the mix every now and then, tastes picked up at Woodford or other festival jaunts, quite possibly. Finally it would be remiss of me not to mention Walsh’s remix of the excellent Sizzla and Mista Savona, capturing the urgency of their original cut Cold War and amplifying it with his own breakneck beats.

The world doesn’t appear to be dominated by a single dance beat or even several of them, at the minute. This may well be a blessing, because didn’t the obsession with trap dance and dubstep get really boring, very quickly? Instead fond remembrances and incremental developments of older sounds appear to be the go: from techno to two-step, idm and beyond. Where is the jungle in that mix? There hasn’t been much, but if it sounds like Ben Walsh on Solo Flight I’d like to hear a lot more.

- Chris Cobcroft.
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