With a plentiful dosage of subdued acid squelches, BLAEN sandblasts the ears with a mind-boggling collection that is already inching its way to the top of our best releases of 2019. A delicious acidic modular soup.
A delicious acidic modular soup, BLAEN delivers highly rhythmic outbursts for Welsh Modular Alliance—#1 is the aptly-titled full-length debut—and a surprise welcome to these ears. With rugged bass, broken beats, and wicked distortion, BLAEN manages to smooth it out via classic IDM architecture on tracks like “Schwann Cell” for example. “Mikel” is a culmination of head-bobbing creativity—a slow motion trajectory with blissful melodic strands counteracted by warm analog synthesizer tones and drones to fill in the voids—a definite highlight of the lot. “Recombination” flows in a parallel crevasse in that it exudes Bola-esque rhythmic acrobatics and ultra low-end maneuvering alongside subtle vinyl scratching to connect its tectonic plates. #1 is such an exploratory beauty and a powerhouse of smoldering electronics that fans of classic Einoma, Luke Vibert, Aphex Twin, Quinoline Yellow, Bitstream, as well as early offerings by labels like Rephlex, Warp, and Skam will easily devour. With a plentiful dosage of subdued acid squelches, BLAEN sandblasts the ears with a mind-boggling collection that is already inching its way to the top of our best releases of 2019.
#1 is available on Welsh Modular Alliance.
