Overcast Sound is the Canadian duo of Michael Pettit and Jamie Drouin, based in Berlin at the moment. Released on an Italian label, this three-track EP coalesces into one placid yet meticulously active expanse. There are nods towards the subliminal cool of dubstep and the openness of ambient, and bits of field recordings factor into these minimal compositions, but ultimately the self-ascribed tag “deep techno” about sums it up.
Losing You begins with its title track: soft, sultry, echoing, with rubbery snippets of female vocals and a pocket-sized beat. Vague sounds occur and reoccur in every direction, drawing our ear to new coordinates in the gaping space the duo conjures. ‘Thousands Of Days’ yields more of the sampled vocals as well as more of the microscopic repetition and anomalies, all while the rest of the track yawns and stretches out as languidly as could be. There are small claps of percussion amid passing burrs, and yet everything occupies a similarly diaphanous plane.
If the nine-minute ‘Desire’ feels more sinister and cosmic at first, the introduction of a subtle blip of a beat leads us along as couched textures gradually peek through from there. It’s perhaps the least spectral of the three, growing even more robust towards the end. That said, much of the appeal of Overcast Sound lies in feeling out contours that seem like they’re barely there.
Doug Wallen
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