Review Summary: Aquatic networks for the new city
Vladislav Delay is a bit of an otherworldly force. For one, his music is as much acoustic, live instrumentation as it is electronic. Yet what makes him one of the most groundbreaking electronic composers ever (yep, I said it) is his ability to create compositions that sound like they were generated by machines or instruments that simply don't exist yet. But through this medium and in particular on, 'Whistleblower', he is able to take us to a sun drenched city of the inner mind.
The thing I think Vladislav does best is create a environment that is decidedly urban and futuristic in sound through a method of composing that is completely abstract and entirely his own. If you thought 'Confield' by Autechre was out there, you haven't heard anything yet. The music has glitch-eque qualities, but ultimately sounds so natural and warm in its recording style that the music begins to resemble what the future of post-rock may sound like if the experimentation that Talk Talk were flirting with was taken it to its furthest extreme. Its a very soothing yet chaotic and at times violent mix that truly is astounding and unheard of in music before this album was released.
This recording often brings back memories of walking down the streets of Chicago in the mid-2000s with everything feeling optimistic for the future. Maybe it was just me, I will never know. But this album's sound represents an ideal form that I saw electronic music moving towards and this album completes that imagined prophecy.
Sasu Ripatti's project remains a sophisticated and poignant artistic statement for music that doesn't have many comparisons. This is experimental music with ambient and electronic elements but no doubt it will bring to mind jazz, krautrock, post-rock and many other genres due to its organic yet alien nature that is almost impossible to describe. It is the stutterings of the aquatic networks of new city that has yet to be built.
