Wume\u2019s music is not for everyone. This Baltimore, MD-based duo flies the krautrock flag high and proud in their abstract minimalist compositions. While Towards The Shadow <\/i>will appeal only to a very specific kind of listener, it actually has a broader appeal, though for reasons that are not intentional.<\/p>\n
This is an album galvanized by rhythm, which always keeps things engaging no matter how obtuse the number. April Camlin, one half of the band, is a drummer. While the group\u2019s music is primarily synth based \u2013 Albert Schatz, the other half, is a synth player \u2013 the real drums not only give the electronic music an organic feel but make it sound gritty. Although the songs by their very nature are repetitive, Camlin\u2019s drumming is muscular and groovy, to the point that the record\u2019s rhythmic dynamics is its most striking characteristic.<\/p>\n
The standout \u201cShadow,\u201d has powerful drums that intricately weave in between the percussive synths, producing a complex but catchy rhythmic fabric. On \u201cIt\u2019s Okay,\u201d the synthesizers are sparse, fading in and out like calming waves, while the drums pound away with utmost vigor that brings upon an interesting juxtaposition of sounds.<\/p>\n
Undoubtedly the coolest track here is \u201cPool Of Light,\u201d where the rhythmic and sound dynamics of this album are at its most brilliant because of the Steve Reich-like repetitive piano and drums construct, upon which the synth layers are slowly built.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Rhythm rescues the otherwise forgettable instrumental \u201cRavel\u201d in the form of the play between the bleeps of the synths and the math rock drums, which is a lot of fun. On the other hand, \u201cBlood Moon,\u201d which has no sense of rhythm, turns out a meaningless meandering instrumental.<\/p>\n
Towards The Shadow<\/i> finds Camlin prominently taking up the singing role. However, her vocal performance does not bring as much to the table as the instrumentation; this is fine, considering the musical compositions here work great without vocals, to begin with. However, her robotic vocals on \u201cWalled Garden\u201d truly add a lot of charm to this quirky minimalist number.<\/p>\n
On the record\u2019s most lyrically profound cut \u201cFunctionary,\u201d Camlin simply reads out texts from the 1955 book Eros And Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry Into Freud<\/i> by German philosopher Herbert Marcuse. Even though the passages read out make for interesting listening, the monotonous delivery and the seemingly LSD-induced combination of lethargic synths and percussions result in a strange and boringly weak track.<\/p>\n
A similar prosaic combination of Camlin\u2019s dull singing and clueless synths repeats on the first half of \u201cGen Seq.\u201d But this is negated by the second half, as the song speeds up and transforms into an exciting symphony of drums and droning synths that appear like they are about to explode, creating some very captivating musical drama.<\/p>\n
With its circuitous polyrhythmic cuts and vocals that aren\u2019t pleasing, Towards The Shadow<\/i> has nonconformity right in its DNA. Given this eccentric nature, it is therefore surprising how imaginative this release is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":33692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10300],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-45513","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-wume","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45513"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}