Valance Drakes :: A Fatherless Child EP (Detroit Underground)

A Fatherless Child takes Detroit Underground to tranquil lands of sun-soaked signal processing with an emotional buzz.

Valance Drakes continues in his mission for sublime audio scribbling with four brisk tracks, minimized at the core and filled to the brim with overflowing ambient slivers. A Fatherless Child is a DSP-laden haze of curious wanderings and tethered emotion and is dedicated to his late father.

Recalling Lexaunculpt’s The Blurring of Trees (Planet Mu, 2003), one can’t help but wonder if Valance Drakes was inspired by the microscopic downbeat glitch explored on Alex Graham’s exquisite debut release. Subtle high-hats, manipulated tones, erratic textures and emotive subterranean electro is exposed on “Misery Loves Company” and “Abandoned Hugs.” Elsewhere you’ll find a void of dithered clicks’n cuts on “Separate Paths” and the closing title track—with the inclusion of pleasant chanting and crisp atmospheric flickering.

As Valance Drakes continues to mystify audiences via hypnotic layers of electronics, one can hear the growth of instrumental tools used on the title track including actual guitars, drums and bass—evidence that not all is lost in a world of relaxed digitized audio bending. A Fatherless Child takes Detroit Underground to tranquil lands of sun-soaked signal processing with an emotional buzz.

A Fatherless Child is available on Detroit Underground. [Release page]