Audiopile Review: When it comes to navigating a sustainable career in music, Darren ‘Actress’ Cunningham seems incapable of steering a straight path. Cunningham gained massive critical acclaim for his unique mixture of techno, dubstep, and glitch on albums like ‘Splashz’ (2010) and R.I.P. (2012). Becoming a prominent voice in the UK’s leftfield dance music scene, he seemed poised for a crossover move that could win him the Mercury Music Prize and elevate him to something approaching mainstream stardom. But the same obtuse individuality that makes Actress music so appealing makes it impossible for Cunningham to play that game. You could say he’s dance music’s equivalent of the godlike Peter Hammill. In any case, his career has developed into a series of perplexing but consistently ingenious left turns. As you could probably guess from the title, ‘ДАРЕН ДЖ. КАННІНГЕМ’ is no exception. Not really an album as such, this was originally conceived as a mix for Resident Advisor. But it seems less like a DJ mix than a collage of original sonic fragments. In that sense, it is perhaps in a similar vein to Autechre’s ‘NTS Sessions’. Whatever it is, it’s a single, largely beatless composition, which fast establishes a palpably nocturnal atmosphere without ever sitting still for too long. This is Actress music at its most ambient but also at its most ambitious. Seems weird that Cunningham’s increasing obtuseness is resulting in music of such striking beauty. Weird in a beautiful way, beautiful in a weird way.

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Actress delivered his mix for RA in June and it was surprisingly all new and exclusive Actress music. When asked if this was a new album, Actress aka Darren S.Cunningham simply answered that

“it’s a collage. Whatever you call this, a mix, a mixtape, a collage/braque, a new album , what it is, is another Actress statement. Actress grows music. Completely unconcerned with what it is, with what format it is or what it’s defined as.”