Lists
February: 18 albums you need to hear this month
Nightmares On Wax, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Nils Frahm and more
Skull 'Black Static' (Pre-)
Trevor Jackson’s purging of his audio libraries since 2015 has been one of the most extraordinary stories in music. There was his F O R M A T compilation of previously unfinished tracks, two sprawling collections of unreleased beats by Playgroup, and now four releases under the names Skull, From, Dark They Were And Golden Eyed and Pinklunch – and mind-bogglingly, every single one of them has been just great. This final collection of songs, all from the period 1996-2000, features what’s possibly his darkest music: a 14-minute ambient drift, some punky Krautrock, a scary industrial grind and, finally, ‘Toxicity’, which sounds like lower-than-lo-fi proto-dubstep. It may be a gloomy space to visit, but the talent Jackson demonstrates is dazzling. Joe Muggs
8/10
