Dextro - Winded

Scottish multi-instrumentalist and electronic producer Ewan McKenzie made a significant impression upon the downbeat IDM scene in 2006 with his first Dextro album ‘Consequence Music’ (Gronland), and now three years on, ‘Winded’ finds him increasingly allowing more live instrumentation to creep into his lush, widescreen arrangements. Opening track ‘Closer’ manages to reveal this freshened aesthetic from the very outset, with its heavily processed roar of shoegazer guitars and electronics gradually resolving itself around elegantly arranged piano keys, plucked guitar chords, and wordless vocal patterns. Dextro’s recorded legacy dates back to 2004, via releases on Border Community and Jumblefunk, all of which have drawn glowing reviews for their inspirational and deeply evocative arrangements. A year in the making, ‘Winded’ revisits the grand soundscapes of its predecessors, yet with a more warmly organic and intimate feel thanks to a far more highly developed set of composition and production skills. This enriched palette, where acoustic and electronic sounds combine to often stunning effect, gives Dextro the freedom to craft highly emotional music from diverse elements of atmospheric rock, ambient electronics and film-score moods, resulting in a suite of nine exquisite, pastoral pieces of epic scope and weather-aged texture, which ably avoid the pitfalls of mild coffee table-ism by focusing on the strength of the musical components rather than the atmospheric output. Although Dextro’s music is frequently compared favourably with Boards Of Canada, along with Air, Blue States, Cocteau Twins, Sigur Ros, Bibio, Ulrich Schnauss, Hood, Four Tet, and Godspeed YBE, ‘Winded’ has a unique and disarmingly simple melodic charm all of it’s own, mapping out in just under fifty minutes a beautiful aural landscape, with subtle nuances and tones placing each part in context with the whole. An extremely impressive album which deserves to introduce Dextro’s name to the list of more high-profile acts referenced above, and find him his own adoring and devoted audience.

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