FTAL 026 - September 2014
Jan Amit - Around And Above
Black Hymn Records cassette / DL
![[Image: a2936562661_2.jpg]](https://f1.bcbits.com/img/a2936562661_2.jpg)
"Around And Above", Russian producer Jan Amit's debut album, will appeal to fans of Burial and Nils Frahm in the same duration, two alumni of The Guardian, Fluid and Wire readers alike. It's pepper-minted with moments of delicious, gentle pianistic beauty and lush guitar arrangements, served with a pulsing topping of pepperoni-spicy percussion, melting into mature cheddar ambient. Not cheesy, but instead full of taste for the niche brand it extrapolates.
These types of albums have been surfacing more and more since ambient dubstep and the hoo ha surrounding it (Swarms, Volor Flex) became known. "My Homeland", in unison with this idea wraps pitched up female vocals around solid guitar chords that instill a quietude and purpose. Counterintuitively the purpose of the musical intent decreases as more similar patterns are repeated, yet there is enough variation to keep things interesting. The patterns crumble like a Rich Tea biscuit.
Second showing for Jan Amit, "Paper Boats" safeguards the instrumental choices: piano, guitar and pitched up, intergender vox. This carries the record close to cinematica, the guitar coming off quite Clive Wright at times. Rather than be a paperweight imitation, there is solidity here, as if the paper on which the message is buoyed across the pond is given leverage by its ingredient osmosis. The paper melts into the liquid, presenting liquidly the point.
"A Poem Lovely As A Tree" is placated with electronic glitches that veer the album's rudder closer to ambient electronica. Then the beats arrive with ambient drum 'n' bass space and applicable vocal tempo layering with "Spread Your Wings". "I'll be like the sun when you need me" from the sampled female in question is interjected with flurries of "ah", "oh", "babe" and various less comprehensible ephemera, with the drums sounding as clear as a jet engine on autopilot.
The production techniques are sharp yet gentle daubs out of a drowsy connectedness. This could be explained as a traditional tension/release relationship, but the data feels more fragmented and spread than a simple push/shove. "Wait And Remember" meanwhile stirs all the previous particles of light together, these characteristics careening into a Helios-centric mixing pot of new age VSTs and piano sprinkles, adjoined by a softly rasping backbeat. "We Believe In Humans" might have a cheesy Eurovision title but it defies saccharine sound charting to be immersive. "Above" to close takes an electronic spin thematically along on acoustic guitar wiring. All in all, a fine album when around and above.
https://blackhymnrecords.bandcamp.com/al...ound-above
Jan Amit - Around And Above
Black Hymn Records cassette / DL
"Around And Above", Russian producer Jan Amit's debut album, will appeal to fans of Burial and Nils Frahm in the same duration, two alumni of The Guardian, Fluid and Wire readers alike. It's pepper-minted with moments of delicious, gentle pianistic beauty and lush guitar arrangements, served with a pulsing topping of pepperoni-spicy percussion, melting into mature cheddar ambient. Not cheesy, but instead full of taste for the niche brand it extrapolates.
These types of albums have been surfacing more and more since ambient dubstep and the hoo ha surrounding it (Swarms, Volor Flex) became known. "My Homeland", in unison with this idea wraps pitched up female vocals around solid guitar chords that instill a quietude and purpose. Counterintuitively the purpose of the musical intent decreases as more similar patterns are repeated, yet there is enough variation to keep things interesting. The patterns crumble like a Rich Tea biscuit.
Second showing for Jan Amit, "Paper Boats" safeguards the instrumental choices: piano, guitar and pitched up, intergender vox. This carries the record close to cinematica, the guitar coming off quite Clive Wright at times. Rather than be a paperweight imitation, there is solidity here, as if the paper on which the message is buoyed across the pond is given leverage by its ingredient osmosis. The paper melts into the liquid, presenting liquidly the point.
"A Poem Lovely As A Tree" is placated with electronic glitches that veer the album's rudder closer to ambient electronica. Then the beats arrive with ambient drum 'n' bass space and applicable vocal tempo layering with "Spread Your Wings". "I'll be like the sun when you need me" from the sampled female in question is interjected with flurries of "ah", "oh", "babe" and various less comprehensible ephemera, with the drums sounding as clear as a jet engine on autopilot.
The production techniques are sharp yet gentle daubs out of a drowsy connectedness. This could be explained as a traditional tension/release relationship, but the data feels more fragmented and spread than a simple push/shove. "Wait And Remember" meanwhile stirs all the previous particles of light together, these characteristics careening into a Helios-centric mixing pot of new age VSTs and piano sprinkles, adjoined by a softly rasping backbeat. "We Believe In Humans" might have a cheesy Eurovision title but it defies saccharine sound charting to be immersive. "Above" to close takes an electronic spin thematically along on acoustic guitar wiring. All in all, a fine album when around and above.
https://blackhymnrecords.bandcamp.com/al...ound-above