Venetian Snares

With a gushing title like the one Venetian Snares (aka Winnipeg resident Aaron Funk) used here, you might suspect some spastic joy coming down in bucket loads from this increasingly prolific "electrono-cat.” But this isn’t entirely the case — there’s often an aura of tension and violence building steam just beneath Funk’s fantastic surface of enthusiastic drum & bass beats, whirring synth sounds and off-kilter melodies — but Cavalcade of Glee certainly captures Venetian Snares in a sunny, positive mood, as he masterfully chops into his riddims and melodies with the best of times this spastic, cut-up and often quite abrasive drum & bass style can offer (Aphex Twin in Richard D. James mode, Squarepusher’s early material). Things get off to a gleeful start, as childish voices intone strangely about donuts on glass plates and the beats whir and spin to the dizzy point. This fast pace and feverish fervour is held up the highest point for nearly Cavalcade’s entire duration, but dips down into more sorrowful and contemplative moods at just the right times, proving Funk to be as much a master of guiding moods and feelings as he is at controlling his knobs, samplers, synthesisers and computer gear.