A percussive darker energy unfolds in the opening nucleic chapters as a mechanical tone sets the pace. In the closing chapters, miniature stretched symphonies shimmy their way through echoed melodic layers.
Synthesized industrial ambient in its purest form, Nucleus is SubtractiveLAD‘s latest sonic opus. Refined and aligned electronics, a lifting off point and a faint echo from previous releases, Vancouver-based Stephen Hummel pushes the proverbial boundaries by unleashing tangled modular rhythms.
A percussive darker energy unfolds in the opening nucleic chapters as a mechanical tone sets the pace. In the closing chapters, miniature stretched symphonies shimmy their way through echoed melodic layers. Yet somehow these 14-pieces brush by seamlessly. As stars go supernova in the midst of this vast and colorful nebulae, new stars form in the unlit sectors on this well-conceived musical nucleus. The central and most important part of SubtractiveLAD’s growth over the past decade—initiated with support of n5MD, and now very much independent—has been the ability to adapt to a changing musical space and not being defined to just one. And this is perhaps Hummel’s defining trait, to meld audible formations and continue to expand his listenership along the way.
Nucleus is self-contained electrical bliss, balanced by the outer edges of hardware-driven industrial, ambient, classical and experimental infusion.
Nucleus is available on Bandcamp.
