Stormur may not appeal to certain staunch Yagya veterans looking for more of his lush dub techno, but it’s a bold and full-blooded techno excursion executed with considerable elan. What could possibly come next?
Familiar timbres
It’s become a peculiar contradiction that every review of a new Yagya album reads the same, from opening precis through descriptive passages to closing remarks. Why? Because each new Yagya album offers a completely fresh take on his existing sound, spinning his familiar timbres and dub techno tropes in new, intriguing and often surprising ways. Happily, Stormur is no exception to the rule.
No matter how much some fans might wish for (or indeed openly moan about not getting) Rhythm of Snow or Rigning soundalikes over and over again, Yagya has never chased the limelight, instead choosing to uncompromisingly evolve and experiment. It’s a working practice that continues to deliver a diverse experience, one that’s not centered around forging a canon with universal appeal.
And yet Stormur does heavily call back to his sophomore and perhaps most highly regarded album Rigning in numerous ways, with ten sequentially and thematically named tracks based this time not on rain but the storm.
Less dub, more techno
This is Yagya’s debut full length for A Strangely Isolated Place, and like several other releases on the label, is a surprising choice given its ambient roots. As the title suggests, Stormur is a much more turbulent ride than any of his previous works, the BPM count significantly ramped up, embracing less of the dub and more of the techno elements of previous albums. Rigning and Sleepygirls might have been presented themselves as continuous albums, but on Stormur Yagya is embracing the DJ aesthetic, with each track mixed together seamlessly as full DJ-style set.
“Stormur Eitt” opens with familiar lush pads and ambient field recordings, a tendril neatly connecting this album to Rigning just as the track comes across as a techno remix of “Rigning Einn.” But it’s mere moments before the beat fully kicks in, a gentle introduction to the full-on set that is to follow, and the last recognisably “dub” element of Yagya’s usual style that you’ll hear on Stormur.
“Stormur Tvö” through “Stormur Fjögur” feature surprising trance elements and even guitar-esque flourishes that recall particularly intense System 7 works, with “Stormur Þrjú” introducing ethereal, whispered ambient vocal passages by Hatis Noir an almost motorik track that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Wipeout soundtrack.
Hypnotic, dancefloor-friendly, minimal and tautly programmed drum patterns become the primary focus and by “Stormur Fimm” Yagya is really digging deep into techno tropes, the pace picking up and the beats becoming denser and heftier. It’s the end of part one, in a sense, as “Stormur Sex” slows things right back down with ambient washes and Noir’s vocals dominating, before “Stormur Sjö” chugs and thuds to life, the sounds of those Wipeout race cars heard cornering hard in the background.
The timbres become angular, icy and spectral on “Stormur Átta,” then warm and glowing on “Stormur Níu,” inviting the throng back onto the dancefloor before finally bowing out with almost Vatican Shadow-like ferocity, machine-gun snares firing salvo after salvo over a thudding and relentless bass drum, building to a cataclysmic apex and then fading away in its final moments against a familiar melodic motif.
A generosity of content
Like previous reviews of records released by A Strangely Isolated Place, there’s once again nice bonuses and dedication to suitability of format on the label’s edition of Stormur. In a similar vein to Sleepygirls released by Delsin before it, buying Stormur on vinyl gets you different edits of each of the tracks, as it’s obviously not possible to present them as a continuous mix on the format. You also get not just a digital download of the mixed version, but a full CD in printed card wallet (also available separately). Like 36’s Fade To Grey on ASIP earlier this year, this kind of generosity of content is a luxurious bonus.
Stormur may not appeal to certain staunch Yagya veterans looking for more of his lush dub techno, but it’s a bold and full-blooded techno excursion executed with considerable elan. What could possibly come next?
Stormur is available on A Strangely Isolated Place.
