While Brisbane-based musician Dom Stephens is possibly best known to date for his more beat-based Outerwaves project and as a member of local folk band Oh Ye Denver Birds, his Nimble Animal guise sees him reaching further out into floaty synths and krautrock / prog-influenced electronics. In the wake of Nimble Animal’s debut album Dumb Dirge on Melbourne label Fallopian Tubes last year, this download-only follow-up on Feral Media Bleak Moments sees him adding considerable depth and scope to his sound. Contrary to the title, the six tracks collected here come across as warm, dreamy and inviting more than anything else. Ghillie Forever at first suggests a shoegazer-oriented listen ahead as layers of guitar distortion build into an orchestra of drones against fizzing, vapour-trail electronics before fading out into a haze.
From there on though, things soon start taking more unpredictable turns. The Sigh certainly lives up to its title, sending blurred out vocals gliding through cavernous layers of reverb against glacial synths and an almost hypnotic dark noise loop, before things suddenly take a lighter turn towards the sorts of serene analogue electronics you’d associate more with Stereolab or Broadcast. Title track Bleak Moments meanwhile sets the controls for the heart of the sun, as rippling synth arpeggios build into a kaleidoscopic wall of sound against the sorts of cosmic drones you’d be expecting a squat party to be blissing out to in seventies Dusseldorf, before Mulled High takes the krautrock baton and runs with it, taking things out on a gentle motorik glide that pays homage to the likes of Cluster and Harmonia. You can get Bleak Moments as a name your price download from https://feralmedia.bandcamp.com/album/bleak-moments
