Icelandic electronic producer Jonas Thor Gudmundsson first emerged back in 1999 with his debut album as Ruxpin ‘Radio’ on Uniform Recordings, and this latest album ‘Where Do We Float From Here?’, originally released last year on n5MD’s Enpeg Digital sister imprint represents his sixth longplayer in just over a decade of operation. Despite its distinctly gossamer-sounding title, it’s also easily one of the most uptempo and beat-driven offerings I’ve heard from the n5MD label in quite some time. While opening track ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ opens proceedings with a lush, introspective fusion of pastoral ambient pads, glittering synth textures and ebbing melodic tones, ‘Her Body Smells Of Cinnamon’ sees the distinctly post-junglist breakbeat rhythms that remain a centrepiece of much of the tracklisting making their first appearance as streamlined snare breaks glide beneath wavering icy notes, blurred out pads and the occasional growl of sub-bass in a manner that calls to mind one of Metamatics’ similarly fractured yet graceful explorations.
For the most part, Gudmundsson restricts his more ambient-oriented wanders to the numerous short ‘segue’ tracks that appear here – see ‘We All Carry Our Ghost’ and ‘The View Looks Good From Up Here’s brief trip through delayed-out spoken tones, lazily flickering synth colour and the distant sound of children, and there’s a noticeable sense of the rhythmic elements becoming more muscular as the record reaches its second half. ‘Underwater Playground (Starfishes Are Invited)’ rouses the mood straight out of its dreamy, glittering post-IDM reverie, placing cut-up staccato MC vocals beneath the skittering broken rhythms, whilst still managing to drag the abiding mood back to one of comparative calm by counterpointing things nicely with some floaty, Plaid-esque melodic synths, while ‘Who Did You See In The Mist?’ bears the clear influence of mid-period Aphex Twin in its chaotic yet controlled combination of frenetic breakbeat tics and burbling, quasi-acid basslines. While much of ‘Where Do We Float…’ charts territory that’s become extremely familiar by now, this is solid, well-crafted work.
Chris Downton
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