Experimental Electronic Music
“Suumhow is what happens when two childhood friends who discovered electronic music together in their teens and then reunite 20 years later.” On the heels of their 5th album, appropriately titled 5ilth—available on n5MD October 25, 2024—Suumhow took some time out of their schedule to discuss the good old days of IDM, their backgrounds, processes, and beautifully choreographed sonic glitches.
Through the combination of coalescing emotions and natural musical extrusions, Dissolved leaves us with misleading echoes that are both reassuring and distracting, frequently simultaneously.
These eight tracks, ranging from the mid-90s IDM boom to today’s high-level production qualities, use lost time capsules and sophisticated synth-techno fissures to create detailed sonic shadows and throbbing breaks, bass, and broken beats.
Both records express what has been built up to in previous outings from these artists, and they may as well be the culmination for both for now; unless there’s even more coming out this year, at which point I’d have to see which way the wind will be blowing in future releases.
The sensation is not of a linear event but a cyclical one, constantly ebbing, flowing, evolving and repeating. In these pieces Davis seeks to enfold, embrace and uplift the listener with these enveloping works.
Psychic functions, postmodern poetical romanticism and paranormal phenomena are summoned to generate an absorbing, menacing, dreary, ecstatic and eerie cinematic experience.
And so we come to When Can, the strangely enigmatic and oft-overlooked collaboration between Kettel and the equally elusive Secede. I’ll admit to being as surprised as I was delighted when Lapsus announced its reissue as a deluxe vinyl edition because it’s an album I adore, so much so this is now the third time I’ve written about it.
If you’re in the mood for good modern IDM, Feal has got plenty. More specifically, if you want to put on a record and be sure it offers something valuable from start to finish, Feal has also got plenty of that. If you want a good amount of variety, Feal is where you should be headed.
