Elegiac review on "Electronic Sound"

Elegiac is a new duo consisting of Graham Lewis (Wire, Dome, He Said) and Ted Milton (Blurt), bringing together two like-minded, uncompromising artists. Central to their self-titled album is Milton’s gravelly, half-sung, half-spoken poetic perspicacity, his distinctive technique having the same prowling flutter and instability that also characterises his squally saxophone style, also to be heard across the album. Lewis, for the most part, stays in phlegmatic territory, creating loops and textures that support but never detract from Milton’s role on ‘He Folds’ or the ‘The Swish’. On the latter, Milton sounds like he’s rooting distractedly down the back of the sofa for his words, but rather than swoop in and dominate, Lewis respectfully holds back on the sonics. The album’s opening salvo ‘Vous Et Ici’ and the bristling ‘Pelican House’ are the rambunctious highlights here, stitching oblique wordplay together with feisty electronics and nasty sax bleating. “It’s a cracker,” Lewis tells me, and he’s spot on.