skoud - systems and drafts
excellent debut release from the new motivesounds recordings label. skoud is a swedish artist who goes by the name simon koudriavtsev, born in the early 80's in st. Petersburg, ended up playing drums for a swedish rock band, moila falls, yet decides to release this 13 track, 35 minute album of gorgeous electronic based music under his own alias. the range of music on offer throughout the weirdly named tracks makes for a calmly thrilling aural journey, we get dips into bleepy drum-n-bass styled grooves in the opening few minutes, old school peter namlook ambience in 'system 35', deep bass action, and wonderfully melodic acoustic guitars and harmonies in the lovely folktronica styled 'system 20 live edit'. as a lot of electronica music can become a little unattached to the listener, and too interested in discovering new ways to f*ck with your stereo system, it's great that simon has maintained the listenable quota throughout, with his constant use of drama and cinematic atmosphere ('madia vale') while still pushing his desire to experiement, in fact, only the opening of 'thc' do i find myself hoping for him to move onto the next groove, but i urge you to hang on as the track mutates and wins you over by the forth listen.
anyone else who craves for the classic mid 90's era of warp releases should definitely head over to the label website and investigate this, as i'm sure i will be revisiting this whenever the mood dictates a gorgeous slice of beautiful glitchy ambient techno.