kokeshi

Exit’s Mosaic compilation showed there was no shortage of producers willing to jump on the Autonomic bandwagon, and it also exhibited how much variety could be contained underneath its collective purview. Like any interesting development, however, it was only a matter of time before a slew of halfhearted imitators showed up to the party. Russian producer Bulb might be included among those, and while I’m hard-pressed to say what it is exactly that separates Daniiil Vavilov from like-minded artists like Stray or dBridge, he does that sensually nocturnal sound so well that soundalike concerns just feel irrelevant.

“Tenderness” is lengthy, reaching similarly dramatic proportions as Croms’ stellar “Invisible Cities.” Bulb’s track glides on the same gently motorik insistency but extends its melodic limbs further outward, flashing lighters and cellphones and whatever else necessary to get the message across that this is beautiful music. Pads swell like laboured breaths, plucked strings and synth chords ring out like they’re engulfed in infrared flames. It would all be a little much if the melodies weren’t so convincingly heart-tugging. The flipside “Heartless” is compact and a little nervier, grounding the night flight and roughing up the synths. The track’s glitchy percussion bunches up into frantic breaks and tends to splinter in microscopic explosions—think Consequence—but even it has woozy, stumbling synth melodies that sound drunk on their own profound beauty.

Words /
Andrew RycePublished /
Mon, 25 Jul 2011

Tracklist: Bulb – Tenderness
A Tenderness
B Heartless