Slowly building musical lava flows, cascading synths and organically layered melodies collide with upbeat percussion, slow-motion rhythms, and distinctive blips and bleeps where you’ll find nostalgic and oftentimes serene ambient-electronic atmospheres reside.
Marrying broken beats and smoldering sound design
When I go back and think about the vivid (and relatively “new”) IDM releases of the middle to late 90s, a raw energy and creative surplus overflowed like never before. It was a captivating time and also felt like a new era had begun to take shape. Artists like Autechre, Funckarma, Brothomstates, Plaid, Mr. Projectile, Phoenecia, Lexaunculpt, Bola, Solvent/Lowfish (and many others) either started—or were already full-speed—crafting amazing electronic sculptures that simultaneously set non-linear IDM “standards” for many burgeoning bedroom musicians to parallel (or branch off from) in the years ahead.
This being their third release on Berlin’s Mindwaves Music, The Ebertbrothers’ cinematic ambience, darker textures, and their attention to detail over Polymer Boulevard‘s eight tracks are astounding. Slowly constructing musical lava flows, cascading synths and organically layered melodies collide with upbeat percussion, slow-motion rhythms and distinctive blips’n bleeps where you’ll find nostalgic and oftentimes serene ambient-electronic atmospheres residing. Each piece its own trajectory and an escape to a place we’ve yet to explore, it’s almost as if The Ebertbrothers’ intent was to basically drown our senses in kaleidoscope tunes with Polymer Boulevard being a clear highlight in their catalog. What appears to be 100s of field recordings gliding by effortlessly, the microscopic/gritty layers infused on each piece flicker and coalesce in a mysterious smorgasbord that marries broken beats, smoldering sound design, and abstract sonic tentacles with utter precision.
With the past enveloping the present and well over 20 years of phenomenal IDM releases under our proverbial belt—and on our shelves or digital devices—it’s still refreshing to hear The Ebertbrothers breaking new(er) ground during the roaring 20s.
Polymer Boulevard is available on Mindwaves Music March 12, 2021. [Bandcamp]
