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] |