In having the pleasure to see Fennesz live last year, I learned how to properly listen to Fennesz: LOUDLY. With the ability to combine complicated layers with simple elegance, Fennesz flexes this muscle once more on the four-song Seven Stars — and if you’re aren’t testing speaker thresholds with this 10-inch, you are doing the system and the music disservice. “Liminal” is a rich combination of Fennesz’s brand of computer manipulations and deconstructed guitar playing, the undercurrent of distortion unraveling the slow dance into the minimal buzz of “July,” heavy with the electric buzz of humidity in an agitated atmosphere. “Shift” and “Seven Stars” play a mirror to the first half, further breaking down the elements that make Fennesz. Even in subtlety, the master requires high decibel levels to hear every intricate level, and though Seven Stars can be enjoyed on a superficial level, choosing such vapidity is cheating.
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