Multi-instrumentalist/DJ Pete Cunningham and cohorts AKA Ishmael Ensemble, present ‘Severn Songs 2’ – the second in a 7” vinyl trilogy inspired by Bristol, its surrounding regions and, as the title suggests, the River Severn. ‘Severn Songs 2’ sees Cunningham slip into a nostalgic haze, throwing back to his formative years in Bristol’s late noughties scene, but cast through a prism of jazzwise electronica; surely the furthest apple of influence to fall from the Hessle-Hotflush tree. 'Tunnels’ begins with a flurry of drums before being enveloped by sub-bass pressure, like stepping directly into a basement club in full flow. As the track climaxes, saxophones sweep the air like green-spoked lasers overhead, creating a contrast of pinpoint clarity against the background atmosphere. Though sonically well outside Bristol’s dubstep legacy, it accurately portrays the smudged perception of a peak time rave. On the flip, we find the more introverted 'First Light', wherein the group downshift from the buzz of a bustling room to the hum of one’s head as dawn breaks. It is a moment of spacious solitude shared only, as Cunningham pictures it, with “swans fighting over polystyrene chip boxes” in the canal below. Overall, Pete’s ability to thread this thematic needle gives a descriptive tenor to the group’s wordless sound, elevating the music at once to something more personal and more resonant –and leaving soon-to-be-answered questions about where ‘Severn Songs’ will flow to next.