James Krivchenia fuses acoustic drums and a rich array of percussion with electronic textures, all anchored by deep basslines courtesy of Sam Wilkes and Joshua Abrams—each track features at least one of them, except for the opener.
A breath of fresh air
If there’s one thing Planet Mu is good at, it’s finding someone you may have never heard of, but someone with some really great potential. Well, that’s what I also thought this time around, but I only later realized that this name is not so unfamiliar. Despite me not being particularly into the music James Krivchenia contributes to in Big Thief, their latest album in 2022, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, had received such gigantic amounts of praise that not even I could be completely ignorant to it—and I do enjoy its most popular track quite a bit, “Simulation Swarm.”
However, I come as a complete outsider here, as I have no prior experience with Krivchenia‘s work, really; I saw this album promo in the mail, forwarded to me by the very same person who’s making this article that you’re reading right now possible, and skimming through it I just thought the rhythmic aspect of it was rather intriguing—and I now realized that it’s not so shocking then that in Big Thief, this guy happens to be the drummer. It also ends up making sense that a release like this would end up on Planet Mu, home to specialists in all breaks-concerns.
What Krivchenia displays on Performing Belief isn’t your typical drill and bass or breakcore though—matter of fact it’s neither. Sided by two bassists, Sam Wilkes—who has also been making quite a lot of buzz with his recent output, though I admittedly have yet to check out any of it—and Joshua Abrams handling the double bass, Krivchenia seems to be more enamored with African grooves rather than grooves for the club. Fusing acoustic drums and a rich array of percussion with electronic textures, all anchored by deep basslines courtesy of the previously mentioned guests—each track features at least one of them, except for the opener. The album ends up being a lot closer to African EDM, which has been blooming in popularity in recent years, than it does to European and/or American; the star of the show ends up being the percussion, with electronic leads almost not even being leads at all.
The final product is really interesting, as it occasionally may remind of something in the line of 2000s Four Tet records, but that parallel ends at just being a coincidence, I think.
The best part of the record for me lies directly in the center of it, with my two favorites going back to back. The first is “Probably Wizards,” whose frisky title is pretty representative of the—probably—mystical atmosphere of the song. I like how it almost seems to stumble around until it finally manages to get a groove going, as you get this beeping synth that’s just looping around the same few notes, and the drums and the bass that are not really following each other, as syncopation and polyrhythms dominate not just this piece, but the entire record really.
“Bracelets for Unicorns” is also a great piece, as it has a fantastic build up to kick itself off. The back and forth of Wilkes and Abrams at the start is the highlight of the entire LP, as while Wilkes is setting a very clear direction for the song to follow, Abrams is adding his own touches much more scarcely, but still rather decisively. It gets to a point where Krivchenia‘s background has grown so much in volume that the piece can finally explode and set a stable drum groove, with a really great kick and some super crispy claps may I say.
Plenty of other memorable tracks manage to shine, like the eerie “Filling in the Swamp.” With a sound really close to stripped down electro and some pretty minimal instrumentation overall, the atmospheric parts of this piece are felt more than in others, and they explore some much darker territories compared to the overall lively mood of the LP.
The opposite end of the spectrum ::
“Judge the Seeds” sits on the opposite end of the spectrum, as it’s a really colorful and vibrant piece. The combination of Abrams‘ double bass and the almost psychedelic chimes do make me think of Alice Coltrane, but with the dancefloor-stopping isolated drum breaks I get transported back out of that kind of enigmatic world—not saying that as if it was a bad thing whatsoever, I very much appreciate the momentum of the piece, if anything. Other tracks feature similar combinations on the record, but only this one has such a strong jazz groove in the bassline that would make me draw that comparison.
“Sympathetic Magic” is also a cute one, and quite energetic. The polyrhythm between the drums and the lead melody keeps the song interesting at all times, as they never seem to match on the one, so you may choose to follow either depending on your stance that day.
There’s likely not much else for me to add to wrap up this review, other than how much of a breath of fresh air this record feels like. While there’s certainly been an uprise of African EDM in the West, Krivchenia does not seem to want to replicate that. He’s added his own spin on this LP, making less apt for a dance context and more in line with armchair listening by toning down the intensity and adding pretty wonderful atmospheric sensibility to it. The quality of the material presented here makes me think that it may be time to check out something else from these guys, and be ready for when another winner may come out in the future—seems like there’s some high chances.
Performing Belief is available on Planet Mu. [Bandcamp]
