This EP contains six tracks of unexpectedly musical experimental material that uses chilled out ambient textures, stuttered beats, and manipulated vocals to create a laidback and intriguing atmosphere of glitchy trip-hop or whatever you'd want to call it. The vocals are generally nearly spoken and definitely carry a hip-hop sort of flow, but the feel of the music is a great match for that. It's not really melodic or structured in the way that traditional songs are either, so it's just musical enough to carry that association, while still resting largely in the experimental field. I don't know where they're from, but due to the accents I'm gonna guess they're from the UK, which would sort of make sense somehow based on the nature of the music. "Perpetual" is more of an abstract piece in its entirety, while "Shone I. (Uprooted)" exhibits the finest vocal performance once it calms down from its more frantic introductory passages. "Nomad" uses lots of resonant chiming sounds and cutup vocal manipulations that create a sketchier and more active composition that still follows a moderate pace; the longer and more plodding "Write On (Transition)" slows things down and distances the beats while the dry vocals drift in and out of a central location amidst the music; etc. The succinct "The Color of Morning" is drenched in effects all over, so even though I love the distant melodies hovering beneath the surface, the tones of the beats and vocal manipulations are a little too disruptive; and a similar issue affects the lengthy "A Snake's Opera" - inching up on seven minutes with some promising elements irritated by pitch-shifted vocals and annoying techo-ish electronics (nothing pounding and fast though, it's just the character of the sounds that bears that connection). The CD-R comes in a slim jewel case with a plain white paper insert with actual typewriter type for all of the content. It's plain, but the actual use of the typewriter does give it a little added aesthetic. Worth noting is the fact that this entire EP is available for free from the label's website, as are all of their releases, with downloadable artwork (different from what I have before me) and everything. In fact, I believe that's the only method by which the material is available, so if you're curious head on over and check it out. I'm not completely impressed with this, but I do like it, and I find myself very intrigued by its overall aesthetic, so I'd like to hear more to get a better idea for what they've done (if anything). There's a lot of interesting material amongst the ranks here, and the duo could do some awesome work, I bet.
[Experimedia]
Running time - 23:25, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Perpetual, Shone I. (Uprooted)]
Experimedia - http://www.experimedia.net
