SubtractiveLAD – Apparatus (n5MD)

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Vancouver-based electronic producer Stephen Hummel’ preceding 2007 album as SubtractiveLAD “No Man’ Land’ showed his music moving even further away from the glitchy IDM-electronic leanings of earlier albums such as “Giving Up The Ghost’s and “Suture’, towards a more organic, emotionally candid and free-flowing post-rock / shoegaze aesthetic informed perhaps by his background in the jazz-improv. world. As hinted at by last year’ download-only “Decay As A Lifestyle’ EP, this fourth SubtractiveLAD album “Apparatus’ sees this stylistic shift deepening even further, resulting in a collection that easily contains Hummel’ most mature-sounding and emotionally provocative material to date. Opening track “Civil Dusk’ certainly provides a suitably evocative introduction to this expansive 10 track, 62 minute long collection, with an almost disorienting sweep of droning harmonic tones generating a potent atmosphere that feels touched by traces of the Middle East, shortly before hissing textures that suggest a sudden rush of air take things out amidst what sounds like ghostly traces of detuned bowed instrumentation and howling amp feedback. From there, the languid “Between Us’ casts a slight nod towards early Eno as liquid sounding analogue synth pads slowly build into a wash of swoops and buzzes, the planktonic burble of distant synth sequences nicely capped off by the addition of reverbed-out live drums, just before the subtle guitar elements that first reared their heads on “No Man’ Land’ emerge into full shimmering detail, taking things off on a stirring post-rock trajectory that recalls one of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’ more wide-eyed moments.

By contrast, “Decay As A Lifestyle’ sees those same rock elements bleeding straight into the foreground, as crashing reverb-heavy cymbals power their way beneath a psychedelic wash of slow synth arpeggios and majestic-sounding guitar bends that nods as much to seventies psyche/prog as much as it does to the likes of the Thrill Jockey and Kranky labels, while the melancholic “Spoiled Honey’ initially suggests a return to the colder, electronics-dominated explorations of Hummel’ earlier work, only for the icily brooding synth pads to slowly peel away as vast, DSP-manipulated live drums, atmospheric drones and serrated guitar feedback take up centre space. “Apparatus’ is easily Hummel’ most impressive and emotionally candid sounding album as SubtractiveLAD to date, and a record truly deserving of n5MD’ self-described tag “emotional experimental electronica.’

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A dastardly man with too much music and too little time on his hands