Inlandsis - Premiers Froids

Premiers froids" (which translates roughly as "first cold days")
seems a particularly apt choice for the title of an album by a band
named Inlandsis. It's true also that electronic music is often lazily
characterised as being cold, barren and desolate. In the case of
"Premiers froids" though this is an album that is not as frozen and
chilly as the title might suggest. On the contrary, the music of
Inlandsis is at its core an organic sound that speaks to the mind and
spirit of the listener.

It is a music that would be well-suited to moments of day-dreaming and
reflection, a lush and peaceful landscape of sounds that could at
times be described as "ambient". By way of comparison, the music of
Inlandsis inhabits a space similar to that of bands such as Boards of
Canada, whose name like Inlandsis has icy connotations that aren't a
true indication of the rich collage of sounds and atmospheres their
music encompasses.

However, simply labelling the music of Inlandsis as "ambient", with
it's implicit suggestion that the music is for background listening,
doesn't do justice to the wealth of finely crafted detail that reveals
itself to listeners throughout the album.

Inlandsis create a distinctive brand of electronic music that is
smart, sharp, repetitive and at times comes close to a pop format. As
well as traversing some icy soundscapes that their name hints at,
Inlandsis also embrace ethereal laptop textures and melodies that hark
back to the new wave era of the early 1980s.

If pressed to describe the sound of Inlandsis, imagine a meeting
between EU or Novel and Epic45 or Yellow6 or Aarktica. That might give
you some idea what to expect from "Premiers froids". Inlandsis embrace
a range of influences from abstract hip-hop to post-rock (Mogwai,
Godspeed), from American 'new' music (Reich, Riley, Glass) to Detroit
techno, not to forget electronic pop (New Order, Beloved, Depeche
Mode, Field Mice).

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