Lackluster - 'Album Sampler'
DeFocus/UK/12'
If Pan Sonic depict the interval when Finland is shrouded in endless night, this chapter of Finnish-born Esa Ruoho's Lackluster project may best characterize the beatific moment when a glimpse of sunlight peeks through the dark canopy. Here, on this prelude to his forthcoming 'Wrapping' full-length, Ruoho eschews the isolationism that characterized his 'Spaces' album on U-Cover for a chilled express-ride into the Sun with stop-overs in Detroit, Dusseldorf, and London.
"In Passing" glides by like a drive in the country with Terry Riley, Kraftwerk and Aphex Twin onboard, while "Gid" finds a perfect spot to rest between "Man Machine"-era Kraftwerk and vintage Warp. Elsewhere, like on "Glimmer", a fractured organ riff weaves among bits of tipsy electro. It may all be a bit 1986. But lackluster? Anything but.
Alexis Georgeopoulos
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