A Secret Is A Snake is a culmination of Ten And Tracer‘s fascination with permutations of dub, drone, ambient and layered analog strands that continually unfold with each listening experience. An accomplished and highly-evolved slice of audio-alchemy that will easily appeal to a wide-spectrum of electronic music enthusiasts.
[Release page] Ten And Tracer has long-since evolved from the pleasant extracts of Boards Of Canada’s nostalgic synchronicity and has transformed his signature of tribal, bass-thumping minimal abstractions to create this intense sound-field known as A Secret Is A Poisonous Snake. While the artwork was inspired by a call for secrets from fans via the internet—personal, honest, heartbreaking and even humorous notes resulted and can be seen in a couple of inclusions below. In turn, a smorgasbord of subterranean and extraterrestrial electrons came to life offering a skewed Monolake flare of micro-dubs that definitely keeps this long-player in constant motion.
“CHEBI17045” presents low-end crisps and slithering tones as “The Man-Hating Sedge” submerges its melodic shuffle. And as the rotation continues, A Secret Is A Poisonous Snake begins to revel in a dualism between ambience and beat-centric activity where a fluid range of atomic emissions rattle the senses. There are interludes of fuzzy nostalgia as featured on “Magic Johnson Spelling Bee” and “And So Anomie” as well as the sparse and buried drones of “Stand Sandy Handyman.” “Withered, But What Personality” features currents of fractured instrumental dub which constantly shifts just as “Cut Loose Despite Your Face” dips into extraneous ambient wobbles of distraction. There are a few upbeat gems among the downbeat sparks such as “Fountain Four Feet” that flickers its hypnotic patter and minimized audio debris. As the BOC comparisons have certainly dissolved, there’s a glimpse featured on “Even Christians Conga” where kaleidoscopic rhythms and psychedelic beats, spats and clicks smothers the album with an equilibrium of textures. A Secret Is A Poisonous Snake is a culmination of Ten And Tracer’s fascination with permutations of dub, drone, ambient and layered analog strands that continually unfold with each listening experience. An accomplished and highly-evolved slice of audio-alchemy that will easily appeal to a wide-spectrum of electronic music enthusiasts.
A Secret Is A Poisonous Snake is available on CARE / Konque. [Release page]
