Premiere: Paleman – Mandible

Music

The Swamp 81 and Nonplus alumni unveils his long-awaited debut album on Sublunar Recordings.

The cobbled square was deafly silent; so silent you could hear a pin drop. Shop fronts were boarded up, cafes empty and bleak, advertising ripped and tattered. At first people had left in their droves, making sharp exits as soon as the rumours began to spread, but there were still some stragglers, a few hangers on who couldn’t bear to leave their lives behind. But they lived in fear every single day, it was no real life anymore, their existence reduced to nothing. Deep down they knew one day they’d be forced out, but until then they’d stand strong, this was home.

Paleman’s catalogue stretches back to 2012 when he was charting releases for the likes of Loefah’s Swamp 81, Fulcrum and alongside Boddika. He’s been steadily putting out music on his own PLMN imprint since then, but it’s only now, a whole decade later, that he’s releasing his debut album Veiled. Finding its place on Sublunar Recordings, the seven-tracks evidence his background as a jazz drummer and his compositional work; rhythm, percussion and mood are central pillars from start to finish. Playing with percussion, droning soundscapes, texture and stripped-back rhythms, he creates an album that, in its entirety, is introspective but it still feels at home on the dance floor.