Review Summary: A mineral that needs to be turned into jewelry.
By the time i heard about a Kiasmos LP i felt excited about something on it. Comprising two musically gifted indviduals, Ólafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen, who joined forces to create a "power eletro duo" that attempt to create powerfull yet moody and mellow music. For those who may be interested Ólafur Arnalds is a well known award winning music producer ranging from Iceland, whose works include his own solo projects and others collaborations in soundtracks. His counterpart, Rasmussen, Faroese born music producer is involved in groups such as Bloodgroup and Byrta. They together sums effort to bring fresh, ambient rich, techno music and display nordic approach to music and life.
It's noticeable how each one's music perceptions are thrown in this album from top to bottom, being a almost 50-50 chores division. Ólafur's soundscapes offer rich texture and mood, providing depth and reach to his smooth sense of melody, even adding keyboard riffs that offers a solid base for their creation. In the other hand lies Rasmussen, who takes care of percussion adding broken beats and twists that drive the steady progression of this album.
Given that what could have been a perfect display of delicate and touching composition fails on the basic, production. The whole album is too flat and sometimes unpolished with would be the "x factor" of the album and ultimately making the album feel a bit dull for the listener's experience. A clear example of the lack attention in those small details on the production and it's intrisic details is the track "Dragged" wich halfway till the end turns out to be a bit of a disappoitment mainly because of the overuse of regular "ableton's" drum sounds. Although it keeps the track fluis and dynamic with it's patterns, just wears off due to lack of processing, in contrast with others producers like Recondite or Trentemøller.
It can be a enjoyable album but somethings seem a little out of place, not in terms of composition but production-wise. Somethings are just too raw for what this album purposed and pursued. However, the great progression and fresh soundscapes should keep the listener's entertained.
Stand out tracks:
- Looped
- Thrown
- Burnt
