Review Summary: Feathery and seraphic, but nothing more
Control starts off by sounding genuinely groundbreaking. “Fireflies” works wonders opening such a schizophrenic electronic release, too-- it creates a substantial stratosphere where you can feel the breeze spiraling past you, until the entrance of the drums turns everything upside-down, and you're plummeting toward the ground in a daze.
No matter what styles he’s acquainting himself with at the time, Ital Tek has always wanted to make you move. Ital Tek’s latest “minialbum” accomplishes this brand of rhythmic puppeteering in points, and it about convinces the listener that this is the record that consistently rattles and shakes the dancefloor. The electronic producer’s eccentric works have duped us before, though, haven’t they? One listen of 2012’s
Nebula Dance will tell you Ital Tek doesn’t quite have a specialty, but rather that he enjoys taking what he enjoys from a wide palette of genres. And a spin of his most recent EP
Hyper Real will tell you he’s all about crafting bangers with the rhythmic agility of drum and bass, but with the backing of exotic instruments that make the experience akin to a chaotic bus ride in an unfamiliar country. So, then, what is there to make of
Control’s feathery footwork and seraphic scenery when considering it may simply exist as a stepping stone for the Brighton-based producer, as opposed to some sort of stylistic destination?
I wouldn’t bring this point up if
Control didn’t sound utterly lacking throughout much of its runtime. For each dose of blistering percussion that jolts the listener awake, there’s a relaxant of a track that put them to sleep right before it. This sort of zigzagging dichotomy makes the album only hit when in full gear, but perhaps that’s expected from a producer who’s already tried a handful of genres within electronic music. It isn’t hard to imagine that half of
Control comes across as hesitant because it’s musing about what it
could be. After all, Lord knows the next Ital Tek release will be yet another deviation from the norm-- the “norm” being a definitive lack thereof.
So cheers to Ital Tek for leaving both himself and his fanbase in the dark. The process of watching the husk of his music expand and contract, over and over again like a frightened blowfish, has been disorienting and rewarding. But along the way, no matter how inconsistent the producer’s releases may be, it seems they’ll never lose those high-key moments that remind us why we’re paying attention in the first place.
