Vladislav Delay
Demo(n) Tracks
Huume Recordings
Forthcoming in www.earplug.cc

After Luomo’s detour into dub basslines and comfy house sensibilities, Vladislav Delay returns to the more experimental territory he explored on his first releases for the Mille Plateaux and Chain Reaction labels. Here, he eschews traditional structures, opting instead for more freeform experimentation. The compositions gradually unfold and end up in a different place from where they originate. There are no familiar loop-based constructions, but rather an unpredictable decent into deeper and more fragmented tiles and layers of sound as the tracks progress. An excellent example comes on Kotilainen, an ambient piece that slowly decays into gently distorted, delicate beats with light static hiss. Ontolla has a distinctly submerged feel to it, with echoing synth blurts fluttering like bubbles to the surface. One of the album’s highlights, Kasvot Uivat, vaguely brings to mind Aphex Twin’s Select Ambient Works, only with more details, textures and small shards of sound embedded around the ethereal tones.