Customer Reviews

Icol Diston

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I came to this album after digging his better known 'tides' cd out of a dusty pile. both are amazing records! the other reviews here are spot on - boards of canada or plaid with more intricate old-autechre (garbage-period) click style beats. the tracks are drawn out and devlop slowly on this album [lots of over 7 minute tracks] but manage to avoid being boring by gradually morphing and building the delicate synth layers. highly recommended. also get tides for a more relaxed counterpart.

Arovane juxtaposes up-front beats and chugging rhythms against a backdrop of feathery synthscapes and tones of heartbreaking loveliness. This approach is nothing new; Aphex and Autechre and Speedy J have all played this game. But while Autechre have recently forsaken melody and just made the scraping noises louder, Arovane continues to refine and explore and find new ways to enchant and confound without changing style. Whereas Tides - perhaps Arovane's best-known record - has a more organic sound conjuring up images of leafy fields and summery expanses, Atol Scrap takes us back to the cold, grey slabs of functional, urban architecture. And it's beautiful (look at the cover). Highly recommended.

arovane's 'icol diston' is what autechre should be doing now if they abandoned their self indulgent, alienating, knob twiddling theatrics of current releases. if you're a fan of past autechre (think 'amber' or 'tri repetae') and just can't stomach their newer stuff ('confield', 'draft v3.0') then you'll be pleasantly surprised and pleased with 'icol diston'.

'icol diston' consists of three previously released EPs that, when placed back to back, play like a well thought out consistent LP. arovane uses similar clicks, crunches, beats and melodies and fuses them into warm alien soundscapes. each track progessively gets better than the last, climaxing with the otherwordly dance floor beauty of 'auBen vor amx' replete with a drony metronomic bassline, a haunting shimmering melody and crunchy beats that awkwardly yet forcefully blend with the other elements. 'yua:e' bears a remarkable resemblance to autechre's 'second scepe' but it's so well done that I didn't care about the similarities, the track stands on it's own. with 'acval', I could imagine bjork snarling and growling over the clicky rhythms which would further add to a beautifully melancholy track. the disc closes with the strangely stuck beats of 'no. 8 amx' before fading into 4 minutes of white noise which sounds like a needle stuck in the pick-up groove. overall, this is a consistently brilliant piece of work which has left me hungry for more arovane material. a must have for any autechre fan. outstanding tracks: torn, yua:e, icol vern, acval, auBen vor amx.

however, arovane is a musical chameleon. if you come across his brilliant disc 'tides' first, don't expect to hear autechre-ish IDM. 'tides' is a drifty downtempo ride that combines the best elements of any Boards of Canada CD with the musical sensibilities of EU's 'warm math' (also worth checking out).

3 1/2

Neither earth shattering or groundbreaking, but a practical, consistent trio of well textured, minimal-minded early ep's nonetheless.