With plangent pads and heart-tug strings folded into deep bass pulses and off-kilter rhythms roamed through by a refined melodic sensibility, Silencer offers a view from and into SoM‘s beguilingly doleful world. Imbued with a certain sense of Wabi-sabi.
In a review of Sons of Melancholia‘s previous album it was observed in passing that a ’90s IDM revival is arguably one of the only acceptable forms of 90s revival,’ (Laurie, Norman Records). A facetious comment in regard to Beauty is Imperfection (igloo ‘viewed here), but nonetheless well made, and apposite to Silencer too, David Nizet‘s follow up, which restates his resonant update of vintage-sounding synthesis with substantial own voice input–off the back, incidentally, of a typically crafted contribution to John Beltran‘s Music for Machines.
Far be it from me, though, to purvey imputations of trend-hopping, especially in view of diametric.‘s somewhat lofty mission statement, which talks in terms of ‘love and passion for electronic music that is not connected to the superficial egomaniac profiling of many so called artists. It’s about respect for and consciousness of tradition in electronic music as an artform. Trends and hypes are not of interest.’ (diametric.). While B-speaking B12, Bola and Beaumont, the Belgian producer doesn’t actually sound like any of these types; his is more of a tapping into a certain nostalgic ’90s Zeitgeist-infused comfort blanket to wrap around you and snuggle into. Yes, you can see where the references are coming from, steeped as Silencer is in the sonic semiosis of doleful 90s IDM and Ambient Techno; but other voices, nods to Dub Techno (cf. Nizet’s previous music under the alias Ozka), for example, lend a sui generis spin. Drum patterns dissolve, suspended in Nizet’s suture of ambient pad clouds, pitched percussives and white noise patina. Fossils of d’n’b poke through Autechresque strains on “Stratoz,” bass music peeps out of melancholic (natch!) Plaid-swaddled melodics on “Numbers Have no Soul” and “No Static at All.” And a gratifying grain attends every click-clack and synth-swoon, giving a sense of brokenness congruent with the man who entitled an album ‘Beauty is Imperfection.’
With plangent pads and heart-tug strings folded into deep bass pulses and off-kilter rhythms roamed through by a refined melodic sensibility, Silencer offers a view from and into SoM‘s beguilingly doleful world. Imbued with a certain sense of Wabi-sabi.
“Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional. … Things wabi-sabi are unstudied and inevitable looking …unpretentious. … Their craftsmanship may be impossible to discern.” Leonard Koren – Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers
Silencer is available on diametric.
