Article
Spotlight 9

Albums
Cory Allen
Ellen Allien
Barry Altschul
A-Sun Amissa
Matt Baldwin
bvdub
Cass.
Gensu Dean & Planet Asia
Dreissk
Mats Eilertsen Trio
Farthest South
Ben Fleury-Steiner
William Ryan Fritch
Function
Ben Goldberg
Graveyard Tapes
Julia Kent
Annea Lockwood
Madegg
Stephan Mathieu
Moss Garden
Papir
Ian Pooley
Quiet Evenings
Seba
Dirk Serries
Nadia Sirota
Space Dim. Controller
Splashgirl
Mark Templeton
Versalife

Compilations / Mixes
The Aftermath
DJ Sprinkles
Finding Time
Friends Will Carry You
Future Disco Vol. 6

EPs / Cassettes / Singles
Break / Enei
Consequence
Elektro Guzzi
Stefan Goldmann
Hogweed And The Aderyn
Karol XVII & MB Valence
Mise En Place Pt. 2
Reverence
Warszawa
Whodat

Dreissk: Edge_Horizon
n5MD

The follow-up to The Finding, the 2011 debut album by Seattle-based electronic musician Kevin Patzelt aka dreissk, Edge_Horizon picks up where its predecessor left off. Cinematic in design, the fifty-seven-minute recording conjures the image of a dystopia filled with still-smoldering ruins, a futuristic society done in by violence and conflict; that Patzelt spent time as a sound designer in the gaming industry hardly surprises, given the visually evocative character of his music.

The album's mood is clearly set when “Wake” comes to life with a foreboding soundscape that gradually intensifies into a poisonous snarl, after which “The Rising Tide” establishes the album's heavy electronic character. Glassy tones appear alongside darker accents, the light-dark contrasts ultimately converging to form a beat-driven roar of blur and bluster. Tympanik Audio artist Anklebiter guests on “.Through” to add even more heaviness to dreissk's already ten-ton attack, though it's hardly the only piece of crushing weight: with detonations repeatedly accenting its corroded rhythms, “Arc” plays like a typical day in war-torn Syria, while “What Awaits” pushes the album's sound to a horror film soundtrack extreme. By comparison, “Waning Light” and “Set” offer relatively restrained exercises in ambient moodscaping.

Throughout the disc, chiming guitars, synths, pianos, and electronics stoke a collective blaze that sometimes evokes shoegaze in its reverberant, texturally rich presentation, and Patzelt smartly alternates between beat-driven and ambient scenes, a contrast that in turn strengthens the cinematic connection and enables the listener to recover from the intensity of the heavier tracks. It's tempting to describe Edge_Horizon as a quintessential n5MD recording, even if the label's wide-ranging discography argues against doing so. There's no denying, however, that the album's dystopic-electronic style is very much a natural fit for the label.

March 2013