steering clear of the mainstream
since 2001

june 2010

review
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info opinion

Lapsed

"Twilight" CD

Ad Noiseam

Genres: IDM, electronica

Ad Noiseam
c/o Nicolas Chevreux
Postfach 55 01 22
D-10371 Berlin

Aug 27 - Sep 3 2004

Lapsed is known to his friends as Jason Stevens, and listening to Twilight it should come as no surprise that he spends his weekdays working in a record store.  The sheer level of professionalism on this album makes it hard to believe it is his debut full-length - Stevens has already achieved a very impressive mastery of his craft.

The key to Lasped's sound is its rhythm - these compositions are centred around clicky, cutty beats and sparse, tuneful atmospherics.  The music is quite cold, texturally - as seems to be the intent, with Stevens leaving all of the thirteen songs untitled.  The most powerful mood is a sense of detachment - these beat-oriented tracks offer no comfort whatsoever, but simply establish and maintain their own complex architecture.   As seems fitting, the songs are barely distinguishable from each other - unless you're listening carefully - so, those seeking infectious accessibility will want to look elsewhere.

However, all these comments about the chillingly machine-like nature of this album are not intended to scare off potential listeners.  In fact, Twilight's beauty lies in its moments of utter inspiration amid the robot rhythms.  The twelfth track could be the pinnacle - it juxtaposes an assembly-line beat with a hopeful, heart-warming layer of synth.  The resulting composition is powerfully moving.

Like its liner artwork, which layers manmade diagrams of electric scales and dials over magnified images of plants, Twilight aims to combine the coldly mechanical with the inspiringly beautiful.  The results, quite frankly, are mesmerizing.

86%

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 14 tracks, distributed by Soleilmoon, released 2004]