After a hat-trick of disappointing projects (two Mortiz Von Oswald albums, one Vladislav Delay Quartet) Vladislav Delay has quietly released a new EP entitled ‘Latoma’ (no, I have no idea what it means either). Consisting of two new tracks and one remix, we’re treated to almost twenty-five minutes of dub techno. But after so many self-indulgent, wank filled ambient releases that have had Delay’s name attached to them, has he lost his way somewhat?
Nope.
Vladislav Delay “Latoma EP”
The first two tracks featured on this EP are absolutely superb, and the best listen I’ve had in some time. The title track features a Steve Reich-inspired sustained chord attack pinned down with Delay’s now trademark monotone bass line and sporadic flutters of acoustic percussion that slowly swell to engulf the entire piece. It’s minimal dub in a sense, but so much more than that.
Think of ‘Multila’ style writing, but with ‘Demo(n) Tracks’ tireless studio effort. Everything being created and destroyed all at once, with the most deft execution imaginable. It’s a sound scape with a groove, a track that doesn’t subtly suggest artistic integrity, but proves it in every bar with Vladislav’s new confident swagger.
I think a fair measure of an artist is how unique their music is, and upon the first listen to ‘Latoma’, you become acutely aware that no one else in the world could have cut a track like this.
The second track, ‘Korpi’ sways back and forth with a shuffle and groove, welded to the most beautiful tape driven double bass sample. The groove remains in place throughout the entire piece, accentuated by a few layers of percussion and a resonant/distorted synth key stab. This track doesn’t so much welcome you as it does suffocate. There’s no space to breath or move within its depths, and it seizes you with a tight focus which won’t relent until the full six minutes are up. Honestly, I’ve never heard anything quite like it.
The Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer remix of Latoma is actually pretty good (despite how much I loath this remix thing everyone does), but I can’t help but feel it could have done better had it lost the Latoma samples, and stood alone as a bonus track. It has the typical Ricardo Villalobos overly-processed drum sound, but some interesting rhythms to prevent it becoming monotonous. It’s extremely sparse, at some points consisting entirely of a few simple rhythms, but at its peak (about five minutes in, if you ask me) comes together quite nicely. Despite it’s inaccessibility, sounds to me like a track that was designed for club djs – and that is so old hat.
I say this because there’s about 32 bars of nothing but simple rhythms forming the intro and outro, that add nothing to the experience but to lengthen it considerably. It does, however sit juxtaposed to the other two tracks, and if nothing else is an interesting little bonus to have.
As a single entity, this EP is essential to anyone interested in experimental music. In one fell swoop it pushes the genre a little further whilst harking back to the early 2000s, when a new release really held something new and unexplored (if you were around at the beginning of the ‘Chain Reaction’ movement, you will love this). It’s one of the very few releases I have heard in the past decade that actually excites me when I listen to it. I get the impression that Mr. Delay was merely warming up his studio with earlier releases, until he felt comfortable enough to create something truly remarkable. Hopefully the new Luomo disc will follow suit.