You might know Italian producer Neel as one half of apocalypse-by-drone ambient techno uberduo Voices From The Lake (along with Donato Dozzy), or you might know him as the murmuring sum total of every truck passing by your window, every vent issuing hot air into your chambers, and every drop of water that escapes from the spigot in the kitchen. Pop on “Life on Laputa” from Phobos, his forthcoming full-length debut via Spectrum Spools, and let his tremulous walls of low end swirl from one of your headphones (left) to the other (right). If you’re playing it on your home stereo system, turn up the volume loud enough to do it justice. Without a single audible beat, at least in this snippet we’ve been granted, Neel testifies to his status as an international electronic all star by virtue of the gorgeous fidelity and subtle forward motion of his abstracted synth narratives. Fully focus on any one crystalline detail of his mix for a moment and risk missing the bigger picture: the pulsating bass patch growing larger in the distance; the layered blips eddying around the edges; the chordal pads inching us deeper into legible harmonic territory. Neel arranges these would-be faceless components into a bone-thick waveform, and bids us to sketch out our own little mental trip to a remote location in the cosmos. With “Life on Laputa Regio” cranked high enough, your mind won’t have anywhere else to go. Yeah, Phobos is probably really nice this time of year. Let’s terraform that sucker once and for all and get up there.
Phobos drops on November 10 on 2xLP and CD. You can preorder it now.
• Neel: https://soundcloud.com/neel
• Spectrum Spools: http://editionsmego.com/releases/spectrum-spools
More about: Neel
