(July 2009) Back in 2007, I praised Retic for their debut album, Saturn Day Trajectory for its tricky interleaving of keen beats and sly sine-wave bass with crackerjack melodies, and Somnolent Massive is more of the same wonderfulness.
Still evoking Boards of Canada but mixing in with some classic Rephlex / Braindance sounds (“Flippit”), Retic pushes his sound a tad further than before, coming back with a further distillation of his influences. Overall the album has a nice pastoral-IDM mood, but with a couple of detours (the 80s-Detroit sounding “Represent,” the dnb drive of “Pushing Buttons”) that keep the album fresh all the way through.
Equally focused on rhythm and melody, Somnolent Massive is a well-rounded “album” in the classic sense, not something that one would pick a couple of tracks to download. The whole thing is worth your time.
Seriously recommended.
Somnolent Massive is out now on Mute Rebellion. [Purchase]
