Jonathan Krisp – Rewilding (VLSI)

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UK-based electronic producer Jonathan Krisp (real name John Watson) released his preceding second album, the folktronica-tinged ‘The Anthropocene’ back in 2012, and now a full seven years later this latest download-only collection ‘Rewilding’ finally offers up its long awaited follow-up. There’s a similar fusion between more digitally sculpted and organically-derived sounds occurring on the nine tracks collected here, which are conceptually united by the theme of reacquainting oneself with nature and immersing in natural settings.

‘Patina’ even kicks in what sounds like a distant sampled wolf howl before melodic steel-drum tones lock in against shuffling wood-block rhythms, the highly refined tech-house aesthetic suggesting the likes of Kompakt as jazzy melodic tones and bass flourishes dart against aluminium-light hi-hats and twinkling xylophones.

Throughout this entire there’s an emphasis on 4/4 house / techno beats as a constant rhythmic backbone, with the driving ‘Phoebus Cartel’ showcasing Krisp’s more dancefloor-focused side as dark moody synths prowl against streamlining electro-house rhythms, the tumbling melodic chimes that constantly spin through the mix evoking Pantha Du Prince’s similarly hypnagogic bellchamber experimentation.

Indeed, it’s these melodic, percussive and often bell-like elements that form the most recurrent motif on this album, whether in the case of the delicate ‘Unicursal Hexagram’, which sees twinkling chimes and thumb-pianos winding themselves into spiralling melodic layers against phased synth sweeps, aquatic bass squelches and skipping chilled house rhythms, or on the more muscular ‘Trophic Cascades’, which fuses vast sub-bass chords with sheeny future-focused synths and steel tech-house beats, the twinkling bell arrangements during the breakdown offering up one of the most exquisite highlights here. I

f you’re a fan of future-minded dancefloor energy fused with immaculate sound design along the likes of Pantha Du Prince and Trentemoller, ‘Rewilding’ is sure to delight.

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