Despite having a title and list of song titles pretty much straight out of a particularly petulant or “difficult†Aphex Twin release, Chris Douglas’ (formerly of O.S.T) Dalglish’ second album Ideom has a life and sound of its own that unites obtuse rhythmic patterns, signal processing and ominous sound sculpture. Although titles such as Hysgeil, Tishm, F.M00 hint at a misanthropic self-sabotaging approach to working with sound, Ideom is an album with a simple, subtle but heavily fragmented beauty.
Loosely based within genre parameters including glitch, abstract pop and experimentalism, Ideom’ fifteen tracks push their respective boundaries whilst strongly relating to each other within the album framework. Tracks including the ping pong bitcrushing burst of electronic warfare of Jokma 1 and the Dante’ Inferno inducing electro-acoustic power electronics of Exhinelon bring to mind artists including Pan Sonic, Hrvatski, Kraftwerk, Einsturzende Neubaten and Anthony Pateras’ electronics work outs, whilst never being wholly consumed by any of its influences.
Underneath the digital fuckery lies a inherently bleak underbelly to Ideom, part purgatory meets part K-hole meets part isolationist winter. The simple and subtle beauty of the album neatly but uncomfortably intertwines with the darkly dense soundscapes, and it wouldn’ be inconceivable to imagine it as a suitably disturbed soundtrack to a psychological thriller. Whilst perhaps a little too lengthy at fifteen tracks and seventy two minutes, Dalglish’ Ideom is a strong example of uncomfortable electronic processes and intriguing sonic experiments.
Andrew Tuttle
