As SubtractiveLAD, over the course of five preceding albums, Vancouver-based electronic producer Stephen Hummel has developed into one of the n5MD label’s most prominent artists. He’s also prolific, having managed to release an album a year since 2005. While Hummel’s preceding 2009 SubtractiveLAD album Where The Land Meets The Sky saw him bringing his guitar to the forefront for a collection that was easily his most most post-rock informed album to date, Life At The End Of The World sees him opting instead for a wander down into deep, beatless ambience. While the title perhaps at first suggests a more forbidding aesthetic at work, in this case Hummel’s vision of the end of the world proves to be a surprisingly beatific place, with the ten tracks here opting for gently flowing synthetic drone-based landscapes that call to mind Brian Eno’s classic ambient period.
Compared to Where The Land…, it’s also virtually impossible to distinguish Hummel’s guitar-based contributions from the surrounding wash of synthetic elements and trailing keys on tracks such as the hypnotic ‘Summer In Your Mouth’ and the oceanic-sounding ‘Ne Plus Ultra’, such is the level of digital manipulation and processing he’s chosen to apply here to his primary instrument. That said, attentive listeners will still notice unmistakeable traces of undisguised guitar scattered subtly through the warm ebb and flow of ‘The Deep And Lovely Quiet’, easily this record’s most outwardly post-rock tinged offering (think slow-motion echoes of Explosions In The Sky), while ‘Once The Stars Have Been Washed From The Sky’ even sees distorted guitar feedback forming the propulsive backdrop to the surrounding synth drones towards the end of its epic eight minute long crawl. With ‘Life At The End Of The World’, Hummel has succeeded in crafting an exploration into deep beatless ambience that stands up against his best work, and one which will certainly appeal to fans of ‘Apollo / On Land’-era Brian Eno.
Chris Downton
