There’ an eerie undertone to much of the cryptic rhythmical soundscapes on this latest offering from Swedish musician Objekt4. Reinforced by the scraping metal shanks that litter the later phrases of “Seclusion’, the intensity with which he builds this series of mechanised looping beasts into an uneasy pulse is quite engaging.
Objekt 4′ obtuse rhythms that seem to deconstruct themselves with an almost reckless disregard, convey a sense of impending doom – something echoed in the bleak landscapes that litter the artwork. Like being lost in some dark Nordic forest in the dead of the night, the smallest sounds from wind in the trees to the distant pulse of some lost drum pattern begin to take on sinister forms. “Her Face’, which commences with an almighty thump decays quickly into a murky subspace of deep drone and mid-range gusts of tone. These gusts bring with them a smell of gritty earth and it’s this overwhelmingly organic quality (made all the more real by some excellent use of reverb to add spatial depth) to draws you deep into this unfamiliar and somewhat unwelcoming realm.
Occasionally let down by the emergence of “straight forward’ beats, the character of this record for the most part is unsettled, uncomfortable and uncontrolled – it suggests a foreign world where the conventions usually associated with these sound palettes are removed or at least reworked into something far less recognisable.
Lawrence English
