Labels: Arable
Review by: Andy Malcolm
I haven’t reviewed any electronica for ages, mostly because I suck at it, but I fancied popping out a couple of words about this 4 track beauty from Flotel because it’s dead nice and all. Plus the under-stated packaging is super emo. It has trees on the front. The sounds on the record were thought up by a chap from Nottingham, and it is on a label called Arable, which is run by a chap from Isan. Which may be of useful info to you.
Flotel indulges in my favourite realm of electronica, that being the laid back and downbeat melodic branch. “Swiss Mountain” allows wandering electronic noises to create the atmosphere and the “tune” (for want of a better word), with additional effects layered over the top. It breaks out the whirr-click-pop very occasionally and makes good use of it, instead of just making it fart all the bloody time as some electronica records tend to do. After that track, Flotel gets a lot more sparse and bleaker, it’s not so melodic and doesn’t follow a typical structure. Nice background music, probably better to have it on a lower volume or it can be a bit unsettling what with the noises crashing in all of a sudden. This really reminds me of something but I can’t recall what the precise name is. Probably Arovane or Bauri or Opiate or one of a dozen other bands like this that I have enjoyed over the past few years. On the flip we start with “Anlogo” which returns to a more structured approach, with eerie synthesised (or whatever) music flowing through the speakers. Nice. Told you I sucked at describing electronica. Perhaps go read a music magazine which writes about this sort of thing in a proper way if it bothers you. Lastly we have “One Window, Two Views” which has a bubbly sound and some whirrs and clicks as it meanders along subtly. Very warm. Very fine. It sounds like a glacier, and gets pretty spooky at the end.
Anyways, all told this is 4 tracks of nicely packaged downbeat electronica noodlings for your long dark nights. Good stuff.