Moiré - Shelter

electronic/dance

Warm, glitchy, sometimes narcotic experimental house. Dark in that it definitely feels like night-time music, but not depressive (like say, a lot of Andy Stott, which isn't meant as a knock to Stott at all). Reminds me a lot of Actress' first one ("Hazyville"), reasonable since it's out on his Werkdiscs label. Occasional reminders of Boards of Canada pre-"Music Has the Right to Children" or on "Tomorrow's Harvest" (has the same 80s movie/tv score night time vibe in a few places). Also reminds me a lot of Jan Jelinek's "Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records".

RIYL: Actress, Jan Jelinek/The Exposures, The Field, Kyle Hall's or Omar S' chiller stuff

1: Off kilter drum machines and a metallic resonating mid-range melody to start. Tentative claps and cymbals come in. The beat slowly gets more sure of itself, it starts to straighten out a bit, and some more yawning background elements come in. Sort of long (just shy of 6 min), but still feels like an intro and doesn't wear out its welcome.
2: FCC (shit) warm swirling pads, eventually rubbery 303ish synth in the background. one of two vocal tracks (as in has lyrics) on the album (but the vocals are pretty backgrounded).
3: starts very sparse and subdued. something siren like slowly starts coming in from the background, then a warm rising synth line, then some real kicks around 1:30. then buzzes, claps, and other small touches. flashes of a real (sub)bassline at the very end (more would've been nice). a nice lazy slowburner.
4: starts with a catchy stomping mechanical sound, like part of a production line stamping something out. vocal fragments in the background. slowly rising pads. then the kicks drop out just before 1:00 and a warm mellow (slightly wistful) piano comes in. ticking hats or cymbals. then the kicks come back in just before 2:00 and it all comes together. the keys remind me of something daedelus or marumari might do. a kind of 303ish bassline starts weaving its way through at some point. sort of goes with the prior track, though each is a full-fledged song of its own. favorite song on here.
5: a good chill driving around at night type of song. texture reminds me a little bit of 90s east coast hip-hop production, though the structure doesn't (it's in the same vein as the rest of the proceedings).
6: kicks like the usual house pattern but with one per bar thrown off. foggy/hazy pads, 303 keys. ticky cymbals that smear into echo around 2:00 and snap out a little while later. a kind of shiny arpeggio shows up for a while, then gets replaced by something more subdued that may or may not be a smeared vocal sample.
7: starts dark, but not too dark, with a steady (but not heavy) pulse and a clipped vocal fragment in the background. slightly squelchy bassline and real kicks come in around 0:50. unintelligible but kind of sultry backmasked female syllables around 1:30. brightens up just a bit around 2:30, with slightly longer vocal fragments, and a bit of added dubbiness. the light kind of comes and goes over the remainder of the track. sounds like it's 3 am and heading home would be the right decision, but you're sticking around for at least this track.
8: the other track with intelligible words, though they're just as backgrounded as #2. this one's a bit darker and more standoffish. rubbery and slightly ringing bassline, and a still pretty bassy mid-range sort of acid-y melody. leaves on just a trail of the higher-pitched ethereal pads that come in on the later side.
9: some static, some pulsing filtered keys. kicks and claps and cymbals fading in and out, muffled to varying degrees. not super bright, but still the brightest and airiest thing on the album. a good closer.


recommended: 4, 3, 7

(bonus factoid: after re-listeing to "Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records" this afternoon, i noticed it had two songs called "Moire", and now i wonder if this guy's name is a reference to that)