Fallen is the debut album of mysterious Zurich resident Dupois. It’s one of the most pleasing ambient releases I’ve heard in a while. The sound is big, dark, cinematic – think driving down the autobahn in a brand new Mercedes – the engine purrs like a panther on prozac, the arc lights blur as they flash by, the windscreen wipers put you into a trance – and this is what’s playing on the car stereo. This is ambient with teeth. The basslines are deep and dubby, the rhythms skitter and lurch like the Aphex Twin, the beats are indistinct and gaseous, melodic fragments zoom in and out of focus. The track titles give a flavour of the paranoid mindset: ‘The Abandoned’; ‘Subtle Conspiracy’; ‘Panoptic Structure’. Occasional sampled and treated voices low in the mix add to the pervading sense of unease. For some reason listening to this album makes me think of Nic Roeg’s Don’t Look Now – I imagine walking down those deserted Venetian alleyways, watching out for the ghostly child in the red coat. If ever that film is remade, Dupois is the man for the soundtrack.
[For MP3 previews click here.]
Ewan Burke
