Article
Douwe Eisenga

Albums
Antonymes
Christopher Bailey
Big Eyes Family Players
Causa Sui
Celer
The Declining Winter
Dikeman/Lisle/Serries...
Douwe Eisenga
Empirical
EUS
Finnissy & Norsworthy
Ikeda + Hatakeyama
Invading Pleasures
ironomi
Jaeger / Mathieu / Rabelais
Sverre Knut Johansen
Kastning & Clements
Kastning & Wingfield
Kodian Trio
Kubisch & Güther
Tanner Menard
Mikal
Nuel
Craig Padilla
Post-Haste Reed Duo
Pugs & Crows & T. Wilson
rhein_strom
Steve Roach
SiJ & Textere Oris
Andreas Söderström
Solar Bears
Nicklas Sørensen
Tassos Spiliotopoulos
Strategy
subtractiveLAD
Taavi Tulev
Western Skies Motel
Erik Wollo
Waclaw Zimpel

Compilations / Mixes / Remixes / Reissues
Ricardo Donoso
VA 002
La Monte Young & Zazeela

EPs / Cassettes / DVDs / Mini-Albums / Singles
Battery
KUF
My Autumn Empire
Lasse-Marc Riek
Soulful Nature

Mikal: Wilderness
Metalheadz

Having released singles and EPs since 2007 on labels such as Utopia Music, Sound Trax, Warm Communications, and, of course, Metalheadz, Mikal (Mikael Willett) is more than ready to take on the album-length challenge. With assistance from fellow partners-in-crime Chimpo, Xtrah, Break, RIOT, and Sophie Barker, the Swedish-born, Bristol-based producer shows throughout the sixteen-cut opus that he can craft a drum'n'bass track with the best of them.

Much of it's pitched at the level of controlled fury, and the emphasis is generally on low-end sonic frequencies (consider, as a representative example, the lethal snarl of “Segunda”). No small amount of cranial damage is done by bruisers such as “The Ruff Life” and “No One Else,” and it's definitely possible that more than a few listeners will come away from the listen feeling a little brain-addled.

Wilderness begins on a high with Barker emoting through “Patterns,” her soft, almost Dido-like delivery standing in marked contrast to the raw bottom end sculpted by Mikal. Elsewhere on the vocal front, MCs and soul samples amplify the album's raw vibe, and in certain tracks Mikal nudges the material into tribal and dub zones, with jungle a repeated reference point.

One of the album's standout tracks, “Help Me,” parts company with much of the collection in spotlighting a more restrained side of the producer. Yes, there's still a heavy low-end in place, but Mikal threads orchestral strings in amongst the customary elements to strengthen the atmospheric track's seductive allure. As different is “JB's Groove” for the way Mikal transplants a signature Godfather of Soul funk pulse into a drum'n'bass context.

March 2016