Hydrus – Nodes

“yeah, I got this dodgy timer, see, it keeps going off and creating all these polyrhythmic sub rnb structures, know anyone who can fix it mate?” Nah, soz….

“yeah, I got this dodgy timer, see, it keeps going off and creating all these polyrhythmic sub rnb structures, know anyone who can fix it mate?” Nah, soz….

https://narrominded.bandcamp.com/album/nodes

Oh you terrors, Narrominded of Holland! Don’t think you can fool me with your self-deprecation! Telling me that “Intelligent Dance Music […] might very well be the most loathed name for a musical genre ever.” Come on! Be honest, with me, with yourselves! You used it! You release it! You must have some faith in the CULTURAL ZEITGEIST (caps all my own) to realise you have a market for this noodling electro stuff! LEAF still make money don’t they, or do they just release sensitive things with cellos nowadays? I mean a few sentences further on you use the word “cerebral”. I think we can decode all this promo fluff as a bunch of backhanded compliments, though your mention of “electronic jazz” still has me worried. I have listened throughout and I can’t hear any outside of a few menacing bass undertones in Raim and whilst of course the absence of said jazz is, (in my humble opinion), a Very Good Thing I’m sure you put it there to ensnare some chinstrokers to getting into the giddy structures we get on Black Soap. And Bato‘s not jazzy, it’s more like bladdy Eno!

Oh the tangled webs we weave… Yes, opener, Vertex sounds like two storage heaters having a conversation with each other; (adopts plebeian storage heater voice for sake of illustrating the point), “yeah, I got this dodgy timer, see, it keeps going off and creating all these polyrhythmic sub rnb structures, know anyone who can fix it mate?” Nah, soz, though I do like that ersatz bass undertone you give off as a sort of subliminal support to it.” “Yeah, that’s quite nice and quite organic… quite plastic, innit…”  (Exeunt heaters off reviewer’s stage.)  And yes, Raim does sound like a clocking in machine but there are some cracking tracks on here; Drose is a powerful ender with plenty of punch and presence and Micronaut is nigh on as beautiful and haunting a piece of electro as you could wish for.

Stop being so bloody coy, you can keep your socks on as it is chilly out, but don’t dim the lights too low…