Formant

With its streams of tone possessed of a slippery physicality, "0001 capillary," the first song on Formant's Amino, is reminiscent of the recent work of German electronic artist Pole. There's a spacious and luminous quality to it, like that of a secret subterranean dance club lit only by dim floor...

By Tom Murphy

March 20, 2014

Audio By Carbonatix

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With its streams of tone possessed of a slippery physicality, "0001 capillary," the first song on Formant's Amino, is reminiscent of the recent work of German electronic artist Pole. There's a spacious and luminous quality to it, like that of a secret subterranean dance club lit only by dim floor lights in cool colors; it's the perfect music for the chill-out space someone will inevitably build in a repurposed missile silo. Elsewhere, "0011 trens_ciphe r" inches along with bass pulses and processed percussion, like the soundtrack to an urban science-fiction film made by Jim Jarmusch, while the sweeps and swells of tone and brushes of texture that festoon the ultra-minimal but evolving rhythm track of "0100 amino" should appeal to fans of Autechre and Oneohtrix Point Never. Though clearly electronically generated, there is a soothingly organic feel to these songs that makes them endlessly listenable.

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Tom Murphy is a writer, visual artist and musician from Aurora, Colorado. He was a prolific music writer for Westword and a documenter of the Denver music scene.

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Twitter: @simianthinker