(06.21.05) It is like a jetliner taking off, those first few seconds; it is a tremendous rush that just as soon begins to fragment, sounding as if a bird may have caught in the turbine, and the crash is a splinter of high-hat and snare violence.
Gradually the frenetic rhythm settles into itself, an unimaginable algorithmic expression. This is a sonic cadence for subatomic troop units, a captivating contrivance of beats. Lush chords soon enter, vibrating harmonies that form a canopy that will hover over these ensuing soundscapes, these frontiers of beatific resonance.
It sounds a lot like something we’ve heard before, but then again it sounds better, and because of this it is not derivative. This is an improvement upon what has come before it – not just another keyboard and click-clack, snap, pop then turn back over in counterpoint, seamless warm bath amalgam of beat and melody. This is all of that and also something much cleverer.
Polestar’s Metokinetik, a complex, variegated mixture of rhythms and harmony, is more successful in its execution of this formula than most recordings I have heard. It is subtly bold, not afraid to wind the listener up in a muted cacophony, and then drop suddenly, sublimely, into a neutral gear. A pause, a few sonic deep breaths before regaining momentum, sometimes gradually, sometimes as sudden as the previous descent, then we regain altitude in order to be able to plunge again.
Jon Elliott, the creator of this intricate and deft recording, has made a wonderful follow-up to his Polestar debut, Camplex, released by the English netlabel, Boltfish. With this recording from en:pegDigital, the Bristol born musician has defined the parameters of what it means to be a craftsman, the uncompromising reaching for a place just outside the grasp of what has come before and towards what may follow.
Metokinetik is out now (MP3) on enpegDigital.
