Downtempo glitch-funk hip-hop and illbient breaks all rolled up into one massive smorgasbord.
A blistering and baffling album from start to finish
Downtempo glitch-funk hip-hop and illbient breaks all rolled up into one massive smorgasbord, Laconic Impression displays a baffling mixture of roughened electronics, its audible grit buried in ancient mud deposits. And yet as Epidemy unfolds, sandblasted industrial noises emerge—just have a listen to the clanging beauty and rugged moods of “Ill Nation” or “Death Axiom” as prime examples. The broken rhythms that spill over are filled with rhythmic blips’n bleeps (“Deadly Sunset” and “Substrvct II”), where low-end wobbling maneuver through crunchy Gescom-infused sound fields is enough to have us itching for more.
As these 11 tracks shift into darker gears (“The Labyrinth of Mind”), it goes without question that Andrew Clam (aka Laconic Impression) is in true form when it comes to abstracted and dilapidated breaks (think of late 90s-era Witchman). The fidgety beatwork of “Phat Disbalance” rumbles via far-off echoes, dithered melodic strands, and fractured pulses as if to signal that there is some kind of semblance of order in these scattered, skittering tunes. Elements of distracted breakcore are peppered throughout (ref. “Phat Disbalance 2” and “Uper”) as the closing piece delivers clip-hop rhythmic shadows, not unlike The Fear Ratio or early-era Machine Drum. A blistering and baffling album from start to finish.
Epidemy is available on Acre. [Bandcamp]
