Actress

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Biography

There are at least four artists known as Actress.

1) Actress is the artist alias of London’s Darren Cunningham. If you’re looking for clues to his music, you’re better off starting with “Hazyville”, the title of his debut album. The record presents a landscape as blurry as its title, with house and hiphop beats dissolving into a spray of bits and tape hiss. When “Hazyville” came out in 2008, it sounded unlike anything else out there — you could hear echoes of the familiar (Moodymann, Jan Jelinek, ‘80s R&B, wonky), but it was spun into an uncanny kind of dreamstate.

Cunningham also runs Werk Discs; the label had something of a hit in 2008 with Zomby’s “Where Were U in ‘92?”, and its roster runs from the street-bass sounds of Philadelphia’s Starkey to the brilliant instrumental hiphop of Lukid and Lone.

Much of Actress’ music is deliberately lo-fi, suffused with the slippery grit of encoding errors and low-bitrate YouTube videos, to the point that the distortion and compression become strangely beautiful in their own right. It’s the modern-day equivalent of boom-bap hiphop’s preference for scratchy wax, which makes sense, since today’s crate-diggers are increasingly discovering the musical past not through thrift-store vinyl, but dubious VHS dubs uploaded to the web, grainy and flickering with errant pixels.

Actress’ music has continued to evolve across singles for Prime Numbers, Nonplus, and Honest Jon’s, taking on even greater range and depth, but without losing its own particular character.
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  • twoecond

    >>>/>/

    yesterday evening Reply

  • LauritzToRubble

    your larger than signs wont get your subjective opinions anywhere >

    21 May 6:36am Reply

  • mvjstrikes

    if actress releases an album as good as silver cloud and with a similar tone i will cry

    20 May 7:57pm Reply

  • twoecond

    actress [2]

    17 May 10:21pm Reply

  • iMurk

    actress

    12 May 7:37pm Reply

  • tropicalhaze

    >

    9 May 10:24am Reply

  • garebear4evr

    RIP

    9 May 4:01am Reply

  • bloodmaw

    R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville > R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville > R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville > R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville > R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville > R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville > R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville > R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville > R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville > R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville > R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville > R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville > R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville > R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville > R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville > R.I.P > Splazsh > Hazyville > Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville >

    9 May 3:15am Reply

  • twoecond

    R.I.P >

    8 May 1:39pm Reply

  • post-wizardry

    Now you guys try.

    7 May 2:42am Reply

  • post-wizardry

    Machine and Voice > Harrier ATTK/Gershwin > Rainy Dub/Faceless

    7 May 2:42am Reply

  • post-wizardry

    Let's talk about which album is better using ">" and "<".

    7 May 2:40am Reply

  • almadavexd

    Splazsh > R.I.P > Hazyville people be trippen with their favourite...

    1 May 2:30pm Reply

  • shakedatthang

    Sweet Jesus Splazsh is seriously underrated by you lot. What's the matter with you?

    30 Apr 9:28pm Reply

  • no-thanks

    There's pretty much a dubstep influence in everything now. It's become synonymous with "alternative" in electronic music.

    28 Apr 5:44pm Reply

  • Exzart

    dubstep? lol wat?

    28 Apr 2:54pm Reply

  • no-thanks

    Nah way, Splazsh, Hazyville, RIP, you all got it backwards.

    18 Apr 2:25am Reply

  • machine_elves

    RIP > Hazyville > Splazsh [4] Does anyone know when Ghettoville is gonna be released? [2]

    7 Apr 1:36am Reply

  • johnnyboy898

    RIP > Hazyville > Splazsh [3]

    4 Apr 12:21am Reply

  • post-wizardry

    Hehe

    2 Apr 8:07pm Reply
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