Album Info Hide Show Artist: Actress Album: Karma & Desire Released: Europe, 2020 Tracklist: A1 Fire And Light A2 Angels Pharmacy A3 Rememberance A4 Reverend B1 Leaves Against The Sky B2 Save B3 VVY B4 Xray B5 Gliding Squares C1 Many Seas, Many Rivers C2 Loveless C3 Public Life C4 Fret D1 Loose D2 Turin D3 Diamond X D4 Walking Flames Info About Buying Vinyl From Our Record Store We are a small independent record store located at 211 High St, Preston in Melbourne, Australia (North of Northcote, between Thornbury & Reservoir) We buy and sell new and used vinyl records – if you have a collection you’d like to sell please click here . We ship Australia wide for a flat rate of $10 for standard shipping or $15 for express post. Free Shipping for orders $150 and over. You can also pick up your order in store, just select Local Pickup at the checkout. We also ship internationally – prices vary depending on weight and location. We ship vinyls in thick, rigid carboard mailers with a crushable zone on either side, and for extra safety we bubble wrap the records. In stock vinyl is usally shipped next business day, please check the availability field at the top of the product page to see whether the record is currently in stock or if it is available from the supplier as well as estimated shipping times. If you order an in stock item together with a pre order or back order (listed as available from supplier rather than in stock) then the order will be shipped together when all items arrive. If you would like the in stock items shipped first please place two separate orders or contact us to arrange shipping items separately. We are strongly committed to customer satisfaction. If you experience any problems with your order contact us so we can rectify the situation. If the record arrives damaged or doesn’t arrive we will cover the cost of replacing or returning the record. If you change your mind you have 30 days to return your record but you must cover the cost of returning it to the store. You can contact our Melbourne record shop at (03) 9939 3807 or at [email protected] Happy Listening! Description Hide Show Actress has spent the last decade making dance music that slips through your fingers, and Karma & Desire might be his most enveloping version of that trick. Released on Ninja Tune on October 23, 2020, it arrives after the stark architecture of AZD and the sprawling NTS Sessions, yet it plays like a private drama. He described it as a romantic tragedy set between the heavens and the underworld, and the phrase fits. The record moves in hushes, small gestures, and fogged edges, but the emotions are big and immediate. The opener eases you into a mood rather than a genre, and by the time Walking Flames appears, the album starts to glow. Samphas voice, bright yet cracked with feeling, threads through Actresss humid synths and half-buried percussion. There is no rush to fill space. Instead, vaporous pads bloom around Samphas phrases, and a quiet pulse keeps time like a heartbeat in another room. It is one of the clearest bridges between Actresss abstract sound world and a classic song form, and it earns its place as the advance single that set the tone for the release. Zselas turn on Angels Pharmacy is another anchor. Her vocal is patient and poised, almost weightless, and Actress builds a soft-lit chamber around it, all soft bass pressure and glassy keys. He lets her voice sit in the middle of the frame, then gently scuffs the edges so the track feels dreamt rather than staged. The album has other voices drifting through as well, and they are used with intent. Rather than chase pop structure, the features become instruments inside a larger mosaic, bright points of focus that pull your ear forward. Much of Karma & Desire is instrumental, and those passages carry the records emotional load just as convincingly. Actress leans on simple, repeated keyboard figures, the kind that feel like you have heard them before in a half-remembered film. He teases a kick here, a hi-hat there, then lets them smear back into the reverb tail. Bass is key, low and warm, suggestive rather than domineering. These are not club tools, though a DJ could probably thread one into a late set. They are scenes, cut to mood and pacing, and the sequencing is sharp. Short interludes connect longer pieces with a filmmakers sense of transition. The sound design rewards attention. You catch tiny details on the third or fourth listen, like a crackle that turns into rhythm, or a synth tone that shades from metallic to bell-like as it decays. Nothing is overdrawn. The restraint is part of the pleasure. Actress has always excelled at texture, and here he organizes those textures into a narrative that feels tender, even humane. The albums romance sits in the gaps, in the way a chord hangs for a beat longer than expected, or a melody folds back on itself like a memory. On vinyl the record opens up even more. The low end blooms, the air around the vocals gets thicker, and those near-silent transitions feel cleaner. If you are the sort who loves browsing shelves for Actress vinyl, this one deserves a spot, right next to Splazsh and R.I.P. The Karma & Desire vinyl pressing is the way to live inside these mixes, to feel the pressure of the subs without losing the delicate top end. If you tend to buy Actress records online, make the time to play this start to finish, no skips, lights low. The arc makes sense that way. Collectors hunting for Actress albums on vinyl will appreciate how this sits in the catalog, a late-night companion that connects the rugged edges of his early work with the softer focus he has explored since. Context helps, but the music stands on its own. The album followed a burst of activity that reaffirmed his restlessness, yet Karma & Desire is calm at its core. It is also generous, inviting you back with little hooks that are not quite hooks, more like gestures you want to revisit. If you stumble across a copy while crate-digging at a Melbourne record store, or if you are scrolling a shop that ships vinyl records Australia wide, do not hesitate. This is Actress dialing precision and feeling to the same setting, a record that proves abstraction can be warm, and that electronic music, when handled with this much care, can tell a love story without raising its voice. Product Reviews Hide Show Write a Review