KANGDING RAY — Pruitt Igoe

"Pruitt Igoe is a 4-track EP by Kangding Ray on which both Alva Noto and Ben Frost have been invited to produce sonic variations on a contemporary architectural myth. The EP's title is taken from a gigantic social housing project, completed in 1955 in St. Louis, Missouri, regarded as a symbol of the modernist architecture failure. Designed according to the principles of modernism, and by the same architect who would later build the World Trade Center, the project saw a disastrous and violent decline after only a few years, plagued with vandalism and massive criminality, leading to its complete destruction from 1972 onwards. On the A-side, the original track and its remodel by Alva Noto both represent the planning and construction phase, based on a clear structure and a hypnotic loop of women chanting in the streets of a small town in North India. On the B-side, Ben Frost and Kangding Ray undertake the demolition process -- slicing beats, destroying structures and emphasizing the beauty of collapse." [label info]