It’s been too long since I’ve dwelled on any Berber Ox release, largely because I associate the Australian artist with the dearly departed label, Stunned. Both continue to shape my senses, and though Berber Ox has kept chugging along in the interim, I only find myself returning the project thanks to new love, ((Cave)) (to be fair, I’m polyamorous with labels). It certainly seems a match, Communications with the Interior a moody affair that seems as if it is coming from cavernous depths. It echoes and shifts according to the climate: on sunny, warm days, it invites us into the tunneled earth for a cool retreat and breathtaking view; on cloudy, chilly days it seems to grow darker and constrictive with each passing note. What’s most notable is that while the face of ambient and electro-acoustic recordings has changed since my last Berber Ox spelunking trip, somehow Berber Ox has become a neglected and relegated niche rather than the luminous, vibrant underground estate Communications with the Interior represents. For all those newly minted heroes tossed toward the top of the mountain, it’s in the depths with Berber Ox where I will continue to go. It’s here, in sub-rural isolation, where the real change is happening. It may be raining at the top, but it’s warm and drier down below.
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