Koen Park works as an inverse pyramid, with the longest pieces perched at each end and the shortest arriving in the middle. The albums sonic arc maps onto this pattern, opening with denser passages, eddying to a quieter core, and then floating back into an enveloping denouement. Even within each track, the group’s dynamic range is wide, equally able to forge clouds of noise or weave fresh webs of soppy beats.
This well-managed versatility represents the albums greatest strength, as it enables the deft textures and languid beat-programming to both engage and upset each other such that the proceedings generally remain pungent. There is just enough agility, intricacy, and inventiveness to pieces such as “Your Broadcast”, and yet the work is always easily accessible and full of high spirits.
Gathering themselves together after the far off tone that settled in for the albums mid-section begins to part like fog, the static clicks, delicate atmospheres and distant rumblings are propelled forward by jazzy drum loops that thrive on muddle and chaos. For the albums thirteen minute closing piece, Koen Park’s technical fluency is most brought out, as he drizzles dramatic chords and fragmented blips into a marsh of warbling tones, slowly heightening the pieces atmosphere before a restrained vocal gambit finishes it off tastefully. It’s a captivating piece, in a recording whose ambit is no small surprise.
Max Schaefer
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