VAAG :: Perfect Imperfection (Point Source Electronic Arts)

A centerpiece for the infinitely glitch-filled panoramic of 2024.

Asymmetric rhythms twist and fracture

The Dutch word “vaag” means “ambiguous,” “ill-defined,” “no boundaries,” and “no direction.” Perfect Imperfection is the album in question, and while its direction appears a tad askew, it is to be expected (and often essential) of abstract electronic music. These nine compositions are injected with strange melodic fibers and deformed structures. While musicians such as Suumhow, Hexalyne, and Yaporigami persistently mine their machines for glitch motifs, VAAG creates parallel landscapes in which interwoven beat patterns and asymmetric rhythms twist and fracture to no end. It’s a blissful foray that we keep observing and learning from.

“One Hundred” presents harmonious flows, whereas “Jajem” untangles blistered blips and bleeps. Not all of the music on the album is sliced electronic mayhem, though; “Tom” deftly displays submerged ambient undertones that shuffles memories and fits in with the album’s scattered sonic acrobatics before finishing with the exploding brittleness of “Off and On.” A centerpiece for the infinitely glitch-filled panoramic of 2024.

Perfect Imperfection is available on Point Source Electronic Arts. [Bandcamp]