The wait is over: ikae (Remastered) is here, presented in what is perhaps an even finer remaster than Enveloped, complete with the extra track “Preledd” that previously closed out the excellent deFocus compilation album Did You See?.
ikae—Languished in the vault
Almost two years have passed since Esem furnished the world with the exquisitely remastered digital reissue of 2002’s electronic listening music masterpiece, Enveloped, originally released by the short-lived and long-since defunct deFocus label. As wonderful a gift as this was, it was lamentable that the much lesser-known, vinyl-only ikae EP that preceded it languished in the vault, quite simply because it is not only just as strong as said album, but also because it contains some of Esem’s finest moments.
The wait is over: it’s here, presented in what is perhaps an even finer remaster than Enveloped, complete with the extra track “Preledd” that previously closed out the excellent deFocus compilation album Did You See?.
Loungey midnight music
Sure, these are tracks that either that didn’t make it onto the album or are different interpretations of tracks that did (providing a neat connecting crossover between the two releases), but there’s a fundamentally different tone to ikae that all the tracks share. Enveloped is skittish, brooding and introspective, whereas ikae is moody, often loungey midnight music with a more laid-back, moonlit quality.
There’s no better example of this than the loping gait of “Eloki” as compared to the spring-loaded, hyperactive “Eloki.neadu” on Enveloped (the opening track to Digital::Nimbus Radio for so many years). “Qre. ii” is the real lounge-music piece on ikae, whereas “qre. I” on Enveloped fizzles and bubbles with more nervous energy. And “Preledd” has never sounded this good, those aquatic submarine whooshes, ultra-spongy and squidgy basslines brought to life like never before, and actually far more relatable than the choppy quality exhibited by album-counterpart “Postledd.” The title track exemplifies the spacey feel of the EP with spacey washes, glittering keys and a newly-felt sub-bassline, both it and the similarly sparkling “Obbe ttid” throwing in a number of surprises through the four to five minute running times. The jittery “redskin” continues to showcase Esem’s meticulous production, a piece in three acts that moves from intense percussion through a brightly lit midsection before changing tone to simmering melodic close. Even without the greater context of the EP as a whole, ikae‘s final track “Dreamborder” is possessed of an epic sound and scope that belies its diminutive three-and-a-half minute stature. A bed of pensive, reverb-tinted, smokey pads start their life rippling beneath layers of star-shower keys, rising in intensity until a thundering bass-drop sends the listener reeling into deep space. Play loud!
A well-needed bedroom IDM sound
The addition of just a single bonus track in “Preledd” helps further cement ikae as a real companion-piece to Enveloped, expanding an already incredible EP into a mini-album of material every bit as essential to fans of that early-noughties bedroom IDM sound, as Enveloped. You need this new digital-only edition of ikae in your life.
ikae is available on Bandcamp.
