Denneweg is a less centred release in comparison to Nightlife At The Forest Edge—this latest EP revelling in free wheeling abstraction. At times this can lead to a lack of focus, tracks simply wander with little tethering them to a concept or composition. The EP is also quite disjointed, long ambient interludes juxtaposed by throaty techno which might work better on an LP format rather than the limited space of a 12”.
When it rains it pours. For some anyway. Following almost two years of vinyl silence Endfest hits the shelves with not one but two releases. One comes care of Cobra Club, an imprint which started its life with the excellent Marie EP by Sterk Water, with the second premiering the fledgling Onrijn.
The opener comes in the off-kilter, spaced out “Den Haag (Live at de Denneweg.)” Spoken word fights with synth noodles in a quite grating homage to the dutch city. The warbling “Luchtballon” follows. Endfest adapts his vocal escapades of “Den Haag,” this time opting to cut and paste snippets into the strangely distant patchwork of brooding bars and spindly snares. The EP is jammed with music, with a running time of near thirty minutes. One of the stand-out tracks is motivated by one the masters of German machine gloom, The Mover. “Realscule Frankfurt (Waves of PCP)” does not lurch toward the jugular, instead it stalks. Incising beats cut through a foreboding melody, scored and scratched samples squawking through the shadowy thicket. The flip, interestingly, is given over to something totally different. “Lunchpauze,” coming in at twelve minutes long, maps a wandering journey through distant bleep, echoing trills and computer rumblings. A free flowing jam, the track leads the listener down an ever changing path of knob twiddling and chord changes as improvisation becomes the guide. The outro “Haags Drankgelag” is the sister piece of “Den Haag,” a misty finale of spoken word and synth noodling.
Denneweg is a less centred release in comparison to Nightlife At The Forest Edge—this latest EP revelling in free wheeling abstraction. At times this can lead to a lack of focus, tracks simply wander with little tethering them to a concept or composition. The EP is also quite disjointed, long ambient interludes juxtaposed by throaty techno which might work better on an LP format rather than the limited space of a 12”. Endfest is undoubtedly an able artist, whether this debut on Onrijn displays those abilities to the full is debatable.
Denneweg is available on Onrijn.
