It has been two years since Pan Sonic’s last album, but when the result is this good it doesn’t matter if you have to wait a bit. You can see Aaltopiiri as divided into three parts: first a bunch of rhythmically minimalistic tunes, built on tiny, tiny sounds and delay, in the vein of Pole and Snd; then a few pieces of industrial hisses and hums, like Aphex Twin’s SAW II performed in a metallic and deserted factory; and finally Pan Sonic bring the two first parts together with the more brutal industrial techno we’re used to from earlier albums by the two Finnish pioneers. Aaltopiiri is a nuanced but also very well put together album, it ranges effortlessly from minimal to ambient to downright dancey tracks. It’s good to see that the veterans Pan Sonic can still sound fresh and show all the young upstarts that they still know where the oscillator’s at. Simply brilliant.
Aaltopiiri is out now on Mute.
