Various Artists – The Silence Was Warm Vol. 2 (Symbolic Interaction)

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the silence was warm vol. 2

The second chapter in Symbolic Interaction’s The Silence Was Warm series gather together a array of soulfully expressive musicians for a two disc set that, although often calm and fairly dark, has immediate emotional appeal as well as seductive depth.

A fascinating range of experimental music is housed within (from artists such as Bitcrush, Ontayso, Absent without Leave, Kashiwa Daisuke, Off the Sky, and several others), a penumbra of vignettes that flit through different styles and moods while nonetheless sowing a cohesive narrative. Quirkily hermetic post-rock switch off with taut sets of spaced out rhythms and deep phantom throbbing haunted by unidentified gremlins. Naono and Melorman summon faintly corroded baslines that unspool to form deep underwater caverns through which glide a thick swamp of pops and crackles. Ending the first half, meanwhile, Euphoria’s mournful crunching guitar loop is one of the most lyrical and wondrous things to grace the ears in some time.

While substantial gulfs thus separate many of the tracks on the first disc, creating an atmosphere that is fragile and unstable, the second is a good deal more unified and meditative. Electronic pop of a more meticulous variety predominates, with Moskitoo, Aus, Pawn, Phon-noir, and Lowriders Deluxe turning in fine compositions. Moskitoo folds nuances into each other, alternately pushing then subsiding, the entire piece flowing like rolling waves. As the album develops, the pieces open out onto pared down dance music with ease and much aplomb. Indeed the gradual ascension to this nearly celebratory plane couldn’t have been achieved much better. The compilation is as considered and touching as its title suggests and more.

Max Schaefer

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