Xela - The Sublime

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Mike on Wed 12 Oct, 2011.

I would advise you to look to the press release for a summation of what this project here is about, since this LP is technically the third in a trilogy from Xela. This one is full of dreamy synthetic tones, with warm drones counterpointed by analogue throbbing and grating. It's actually totally therapeutic stuff. With distant washed out mechanical chimes evoking heady opium den-like atmospheres. The pacing and melody is kind of like Deathprod, but this is a denser and less minimal brew than those prepared by Norway's finest. There's touches of Stars of the Lid, but, y'know, Stars of the Lid as interpreted by Robedoor or David Lynch or something. I like this a lot, it's like a moment of stillness amidst chaos. Pretty nice artwork by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, too!

This third and final part of a trilogy (along with the previously released 'The Illuminated' and 'The Divine'), 'The Sublime' takes John Twells' sound into the sickly afterlife, and dives into our misplaced perceptions of heaven and hell. While its predecessor was made up of voices and bells, 'The Sublime' is an exercise in synthesis; with Twells' arsenal of analogue equipment pushed into overdrive, wheezing and heaving over the two extended pieces. These compositions could be labeled as 'ambient', but 'The Sublime' is ambience laced with a creeping torment and itching hedonism that is as impossible to ignore as it is dangerously inviting. Swooping synthetic pads and crunching textures don't ever distract from the fact that you are soaking up music that has been carefully considered to drag your mind into an dampened opium-laced torture chamber. Think early Aphex Twin or Kevin Drumm at his most restrained and you'll be half way there

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