Review: A true artist with the ability to go from strength to strength - Leon Vynehall presents the follow up to the lauded 2018 album, Rare, Forever. Still serving up some of the most original hybrid-form house music there is, Vynehall's sound here is as deep, abstract and mysterious as it is colourful, gritty and polished. Flirting with downbeat and drone activities across the album in numbers like "All I See Is You, Velvet Brown", "Ecce! Ego!" and "Farewell! Magnus Gabbro" - to ambient rave in "Worm (& Closer & Closer)" - there's atmospheric jazz to catch in "Alichea Vella Amor" next to the lonely horns and cascading strings of "Mothra". Beatwise, Vynehall's perplexity for dance music goes all the way in "Snakeskin - Has-Been" & "Dumbo" - with "An Exhale" a melodic, breathing wall of synth-tuned noise.
Review: As if spiralling into a new world of sound design Leon Vynehall remains an artist impossible to define. Since falling in love with his earlier records on labels like 3024, Royal Oak and Rush Hour, Leon Vynehall's major output since 2018 has come through Ninja Tune, including the release of his third studio LP, Nothing Is Still. Verging his sound toward something more dramatic, urban and theatrical these days, "Mothra" is perhaps this single's best example of that, breaking down into some kind of warped, percussive reprise. Broken beat at best, "Ecce! Ego!" dove tails in sound like the tragedy of a bird harpooned through the chest, falling through an ensemble of wood winds, field recordings and acoustic instrumentation. Mothra wins!
Review: In the info accompanying this single-track release, Leon Vynehall explains that "I, Cavallo" is "aimed squarely at soundsystems", adding that he wanted to explore "psychedelic corners of the dancefloor". It would be fair to say that the track achieves both of those aims, building from an extended, beat-free start - all slowly shifting electronics and pretty synth lines - towards locked-in techno hypnotism via a gargantuan bass drop and all manner of strange, effects-laden noises. It's cleverly constructed and by the time the track really hits its stride midway through, it feels like a dark and hallucinatory experience tailor made for dark spaces early in the morning. Top stuff!
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