REVIEWS

Buy this album from Amazon.com

Various Artists
Emerging Organisms Vol. 2

Tympanik Audio

Posted: Monday, April 06, 2009
By: Ilker Yücel
Editor

Within the space of a year, Tympanik Audio has earned a reputation for quality releases in the post-industrial underground, with an impressive roster of artists that explore the ranges of edgy IDM, industrial, and ambient. The Emerging Organisms compilation released by the label in late 2007 was a mammoth collection showcasing a variety of these artists, along with a few choice guests, reigning in the new sound of progressive electronic music. Continuing in that vein for the label's 20th release is Emerging Organisms Vol. 2, which like any good compilation should do boasts a number of familiar faces juxtaposed with some newer names to make for a rich listening experience.

Beginning with HECQ's appropriately titled "The Glow," in which lush ambience paints an audio portrait of diffused light (like staring directly at the sun), EO2 immediately picks up where the first collection left off. Each track goes on divergent journeys through dark electronic terrain, from the distorted ambiences and buildup of noisy beats and melodic pads of Dryft's "Transmission" to the slower tempos and glitch-laden samples topped off by mournful pianos and an almost out-of-place beat on Totakeke's "Patient HM," we are led through varying degrees of emotional intensity and electronic experimentation. Among the best tracks on the first disc is Zentriert Insantlitz's "Where Their Dreams Live," in which creepy samples give way to an expansive series of atmospheric pads and exceptional glitch rhythms. Similarly, "400 Bloc Overground" by Access to Arasaka is filled to the brim with fractured electronics and epic dark ambience, while Subheim's "Take Me Back" incorporates operatic voices atop a laidback groove of slow beats and bass pulses somewhat akin to what Enigma would sound like if they went IDM. The version of "Keks" by Architect is also worthy of mention as Daniel Myer's typical sense of frenetic rhythms and organic synth textures coalesce into a glitch-laden array of progressive ambient IDM. The second disc is no less varied, although we get quite a helping of pulse-pounding drum & bass with DJ Hidden's "Things to Come," Stendeck's "Lullabies from the Cliff by the Raging Sea," and Edgey's "Lodestar," all of which blend some frantic percussion with soothing ambience to create a rather dizzying effect. But perhaps the best track over the entire collection is saved for last (or at least, second to last) with Autoclav1.1 and ESA collaborating on "All Blind." The track just bursts with progressive electronic energies as beautiful piano and vocal melodies hover over sonic environments of soothing ambience and organic beats, culminating with the entrance of ethereal guitar solos that enhance the song's epic qualities.

Naturally, with a compilation of this length, there are bound to be those few tracks that simply do not hit the mark as well, so listeners should not be too dismayed when they hear Mlada Fronta's "Uuo 118" or Flaque's "Whispers." While they are not bad tracks in and of themselves, as they too possess their own levels of intricate programming and sonic structure, they do very little to stand out when surrounded by the aforementioned songs. Similarly, Keef Baker's "Bogbrush" is a percussion-driven affair that is not lacking in interest, but is rather heavy on the clutter, disallowing the synthesized melodies from making an impression on the listener, and while Jett's saddening vocals on "Walk With Me" by Blackfilm gives the song a quality akin to Delerium or Conjure One, the track ultimately stagnates.

With 13 tracks on each disc, Emerging Organisms Vol. 2 still suffers from the same excessive length as the first entry, but with so many worthwhile artists and tracks present, it's hard to see this as a detriment. If nothing else, it only proves that Tympanik is a label that is doing well to press forward in a scene that is in constant need of new blood and creative energies, and fans of the current wave of post-industrial ambient IDM and noise will do well to give Emerging Organisms Vol. 2 a very thorough listen to hear what the future of music has in store for them.