Articles
2013 Top 10s & 20s
The Knells' The Knells
Spotlight 11

Albums
John Luther Adams
Arovane
Astro Sonic
Avatism
Cakewalk
Mark Cetilia
Ulises Conti
Stephen Cornford
Exercise One
Stavros Gasparatos
Huntsville
itsnotyouitsme
Rael Jones
Jubei
The Knells
Letna
Lord Echo
Selaxon Lutberg
Martin & Berg
Josh Mason
Mem1
Ron Morelli
Nuage
Oiseaux-Tempête
One Far West
Orange Yellow Red
Piano Interrupted
Oleg Poliakov
Recondite
Saffronkeira + Massa
Scarlet Youth
Shifted
Silencio
Burkhard Stangl
Talvihorros
Peter Van Hoesen
Vatican Shadow

Compilations / Mixes
EPM Selected Vol. 2
My Love For You Is Analog.
OFF To ADE 2013
Scope
Tempo Dreams Vol. 2
Transit 2

EPs / Cassettes / Singles
Dalot
Elika
Fighting Lion
Kyle Fosburgh
Fre4knc / Nuage
Rezo Glonti
Halvtrak
Ishan Sound
Jacksonville
Lullatone
Pennygiles & Phil Tangent
Dominic Petrie
Response
Sontag Shogun
Strategy
Thrash Pilot

Avatism: Adamant
Vakant

One typically expects to read about an artist labouring obsessively over every detail as a debut album is readied for release. It comes as something of a surprise, then, to learn that Thomas Feriero adopted a somewhat different strategy in preparing the tracks for his debut Avatism album. For while Adamant was a year in in the making (in terms of mixing, arranging, and producing), the Milan-based producer gave himself a single day to write each of its thirteen tracks, and strictly held himself to following through on the musical parts that were developed in those one-day cycles. Judging by the sixty-five-minute result (which arrives in the wake of well-received EPs on Vakant and Dumb Unit), it would appear that Feriero's confidence in his abilities was well-founded.

The bubbly IDM-techno skip of the opening title track starts things off promisingly, but one's ears truly perk up the moment the club-ready second track, “Different Spaces,” arrives. Sound design is what one notices first, specifically the unusual, garage-styled percussive sounds Feriero threads together to form the cut's funky house swing. Brooding in tone, the body-shaker receives a strong boost from a smooth and seductive vocal performance by London-based producer Forrest, the first of a number of collaborations that enliven the album.

Still, “Different Spaces” is such a note-perfect vocal-instrumental realization, it makes what follows suffer slightly by comparison, as credible as the subsequent tracks are. Some do, however, stand out. There's “Bitter Reminiscence” (a collaboration with Clockwork aka Francesco Leali), a memorable study in contrast that deftly juxtaposes a charging disco-fied pulse and melodic textures that exhale at a fraction of the speed. “Laments” receives a nice boost from the addition of guitar playing by Federico Rizzo, though the track's percussive thrust proves to be as appealing a detail, while “Serpentine” dusts off an insistently funky groove that's hard to resist.

Apparently Feriero moved to Berlin to work on the project, and the album vibe reflects it in its late-night, semi-decadent Euro feel. Oft moody and pensive in spirit, the polished Adamant succeeds as well on purely listening grounds as it does dancefloor material. One just as easily pictures the infectious acid-house chug of “Planetario,” for example, drawing clubbers to the floor as inducing swoons in those recovering in the lounge at night's end. Don't be deceived by the production-related detail, by the way: each track might have been written in a day, but the sound design throughout is elaborate and multi-layered (resourceful, too, given the occasional presence of found sounds and field recordings), suggesting that a considerable investment of time went into bringing the material to finished form.

December 2013