deadclou Drops An Experimental Electronic EP That Breaks Boundaries
If you are looking for something that blends cinematic vastness with an edgy overtone, bending genres from hip-hop to dubstep, electronic to experimental, then I have just the EP for you.
Spain-based producer deadclou just dropped a killer record that wraps you in textural soundscapes that take you on quite a unique musical journey, meshing together elements of light and dark, alternative and dream, and taking some of the best elements from a multitude of electronic genres and building them together to compose immersive pieces.
ANKARAMITA is a record that is produced and built with far fewer boundaries than whatever you may be used to.
Yes, it does combine some amazing styles and deep-pocketed grooves while still producing these very spacious underbellies, and it still manages to come through with this incredibly addictive aesthetic.
The whole record is a brilliant atmosphere, and it's one you don't want to leave once you're in it.
This is a producer who absolutely loves to sculpt sound. He's not putting basic things together; instead, he's bending and affecting synths, keys, beats, and clips, putting things together in a way that makes sense but is still avant-garde.
This record is off the wall but really infectious.
So it all starts with the title track, which comes in with those vast synth pads, taking certain elements of early-2000s textures and tones and building them into expansive backbones.
This leans right into sort of glitchy vocal tracks that are super effective with decimation, distortion, and all kinds of other fun trickery to really make it edgy.
He uses those clips and creates a rhythm out of them, adding in a beat that pushes it forward but is also sort of ever-changing at the same time.
This is an amazing track to introduce the record with, even though it's a very short one, simply because, in that one-minute-and-30-second space that the song exists, you are already getting some of these amazing staples that the rest of the EP will boast.
That heavy-handed experimentation and freeing approach to producing tracks is already there in this first piece.
When it's over, you kind of have to start it again just to take it all in properly.
It feels sort of scattered, semi-rambunctious, and really delivers something that feels unique but familiar all at once.
"DID U FORGET?" starts building in these hip-hop elements in its underbelly. The beat is a little more heavy-handed, sharp, and cutting. The meat of the song consists of gurgled vocal samples and a knack for building that beat and sound into something bigger and bigger.
This is someone who knows how to build a crazy drop when he wants to, and you hear those pretty consistently throughout the record itself.
This song swells into what feels almost like '90s chiptune-style approaches with melodic chords and a sort of filmic or cinematic punch.
The beat gets deeper, and the song becomes more invasive but still melodically driving.
Later, he brings in the wobbly effect of dubstep, but it's not overdone. Everything is sort of dynamically balanced while still feeling incredibly wild.
Personally, I think this is an astounding combination because you're able to take in all of these tones and melodies while still feeling thrown for a loop.
What I mean is that, with all of its sort of outrageous energy and almost uncanny approaches and arrangements, there's still a glue that holds it all together perfectly.
This track was an awesome one and probably one of my favorites on the record.
However, "SLEEPLESS" will surely be the one that most people love the most.
This track has the most symphonic and almost orchestrated feel to it, but it does break into that edgy electronic overtone, exploding into the same melodic progression but with way more of a punch and that, once again, experimental, alternative feel.
I love how he can bring together the elements of smoothness or an almost dreamy undertone with heavy-handed punches and drops. The overall edginess of this record is so good, but there's always a sort of vastness underneath, lurking just beneath its surface.
I feel like elements like that take a lot of thought, and you can tell there was loads of attention to detail paid to those little nuances across the record.
As I said earlier, deadclou is a producer who is in love with the craft of sound sculpting, reshaping tones from one thing to another freely, all to create atmospheres that are different. These songs blend so much together and can feel ever-changing at times, but that's why it's so memorable.
There are no walls built up around this. It's not meant to be lumped into a genre necessarily. It is what it is, and I think this is part of what the future of music holds for us.
Producers like deadclou are the ones who are at the helm of that sort of future-of-music movement, and it's all done naturally. This is just him doing what he does best. He's in his zone when producing these kinds of tracks, and because of that, you can feel the intensity of them.
"WONDER" closes out the record amazingly by combining the elements of melodic progression and warm tonality with some of the sharper and heavier feels.
This song alone has its own vibe, and I really dig the depth of the groove on this one.
This is definitely an EP you don't want to skip around. You want to listen to the whole thing from start to finish, as it was meant to be heard.
Don't listen to it at a low volume, either. Check this one out at a good, solid volume level so that you can really take it in for what it's worth.
This was one of the coolest and most inventive experimental electronic records I've heard in quite some time.
Dig into it right now and see what it does for you.
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