Various Artists – Beneath The Surface (Native State / Arabesque)

Canadian ambient / IDM label Native State emerged in 2004 with the release of founder Evan Bluetech’s “Elementary Particles’ EP, which was followed by the considerably acclaimed “Left Coast Liquid’ compilation, a release referred to by Native State as falling under the rather unwieldy-sounding label “Psi-DM.’ Puzzling subgenre-related buzzwords aside however, the thirteen tracks collected on “Beneath The Surface’ certainly manage to traverse an extremely diverse range of evocative ambient / downbeat territory, one of the biggest strengths being the distinctly individual takes offered by each of the participants. While Bluetech himself takes things on a deep, delicate minimal glitch-dub trip that calls to mind Pole or Deepchild with its lush contrast of warm bass and brittle electronics, String Theories conjure up an atmosphere similar to that of a brooding jazz-tinged European film score on the pensive “White Dragon’, somber double-bass figures gliding against skeletal-sounding rhythmic programming. Marconi Union meanwhile generate slow-burning post-rock guitar atmospheres on the gorgeous “Buildings And People’, slow fretboard slides peeling effortlessly off against a shifting backdrop of clicking noise and sudden analogue synth bursts. Proof that “chilled’ needn’t necessarily equal bland.