“vladislav_delay”
Vladislav Delay
Entain
Mille Plateaux
It’s said that still waters run deep. I still haven’t fully plumbed the depths of this amazing CD by Finlander Vladislav Delay.
It’s not that I would want to fully sound the depths of Entain . Every time I listen to this album, I hear something new. It’s as if Delay set up a video camera in a busy locale and let it run for a while. Sounds come and go from the mix, falling in and out of sight, vanishing and manifesting themselves in other places. Delay manages to suspend time in the same fashion that Morton Feldman and AMM do.
Entain is not all new material. It is a partial reissue of the now difficult to find Ele CD on the Australian Sigma Editions label. There are four long tracks on this CD; the first and last are from Ele while the other two are new. A fifth track is used as a segue between the first and third, and a short sixth closes out the album. “Khode,” the first track, is beatless, but Delay is a strong enough programmer that the track is consistently interesting in its 22+ minutes. The textures are amazingly intricate and deserve a listen on headphones so that one can appreciate depth. The remaining three tracks, “Poiko,” “Notke,” and “Ele,” have beats, but this is none of that four on the floor business, his beats are rich in pulse value, and low on dancability. His textures are wide open and spacious, like a thick, enveloping cloud rich in detail.
Vladislav Delay is a contrast to his Finnish compatriots Pan Sonic. While their minimalism is stark and cold, Delay’s is gaseous and warm. One of my top ten of the year.
Mille Plateaux, http://www.mille-plateaux.com/
