Deepriver: Volume One (n5MD/Redeye/digital outlets)

 |   |  <1 min read

Home
Deepriver: Volume One (n5MD/Redeye/digital outlets)

From the same US distribution company Redeye which brought us the languid guitar stoner sound of Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders comes with expansively electronic ocean of atmospheric sound and gritty crackling textures.

The project of Cape Town-based Jason van Wyk and Stockholm's Joni Ljungqvist, Deepriver here offer deep and wide sonics which evoke the snow-covered landscapes of the wintry north, vast sweeps of barren Iceland and the limitless breadth of deep space.

The titles include Tides, Coastal, Valley and Slower Waves, so the natural world is a profound influence, although there is a sense of locus and humanity in pieces like Home with a melodic chiming peering through the washes and rumble of the cinematic synths.

The palette here is akin to that heard in the sound design of the better 21st century sci-fi films where a general sense of unease is evident, although Deepriver bring in hefty beats (Valley) to step past the cliches of that genre.

At its most weightless we'd probably drop this into our Further Outwhere pages but there's more symphonic scope here than many of the albums which we locate there.

This is not unfamiliar territory at Elsewhere, but the sheer emotional weight and gristling static these pieces (the enormous play-loud Motion Blur) carry make it something much more than ambient music.

Recommended to the open-eared.

.

You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here


Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Jerry Jeff Walker: Jerry Jeff Walker, Expanded Edition (Raven)

Jerry Jeff Walker: Jerry Jeff Walker, Expanded Edition (Raven)

First released in 1972 and only now available on CD (here expanded with  five extra songs including a 2002 version of his classic Mr Bojangles), this album was one which introduced Texan... > Read more

Cherry Glazerr: Stuffed and Ready (Secretly Canadian)

Cherry Glazerr: Stuffed and Ready (Secretly Canadian)

Some part garageband with a dollop of power-pop alongside songs which could fill a stadium, this trio from California around singer-guitarist Clementine Creevy hold fast to some old values which... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

GUEST WRITER RACHEL EDWARDS considers the best and most woozy rap album of 2018

GUEST WRITER RACHEL EDWARDS considers the best and most woozy rap album of 2018

Travis Scott plays the magician in his 2018 album Astroworld, crafting an underworld of slurred auditory hallucinations for his audiences. A Houston rapper true to his roots, Scott’s... > Read more

NATHAN HAINES PROFILED, AT AUDIOCULTURE (2019): Jazz from before to beyond

NATHAN HAINES PROFILED, AT AUDIOCULTURE (2019): Jazz from before to beyond

In 1994 Nathan Haines released his debut album Shift Left, an album which revealed a fault-line between the previous generation of New Zealand jazz players and – because of its use of... > Read more