This album starts off with “Mojave Desert”. Its a very sparse intro, but it’s also very disconcerting. There’s a whole of seriously quiet moments, some ambient sounds as well mixed in with the usual electronic sound effects. But most of this track is just so quiet. Even when the instrumentals slowly funnel in, everything is used so sparingly. Eventually a minute or two in all of the instrumentals sort of pop in at once, and the result is actually quite stunning. I know Floating Point has always been pretty skilled in making an atmosphere, but “Mojave Desert” is some next level material. It’s actually a seriously stunning intro, there’s almost a weird sort of drone within this silence. It’s powerful stuff. This short album continues on with “Silurian Blue”, and to be honest the sheer amount of detail on here is absolutely overwhelming. The quiet passages are seriously almost too quiet, to the point where you really feel like you’re out in nature or taking a walk through the desert. I love the very playful keys as well as the very Desert-inspired guitars in the distance. It’s very hazy and beautiful to be honest, with a really strong and almost ski fi feel to it within those very prominent synths. But Floating Points makes it come off really well, and very adventurous sounding. As far as instrumentals go, I honestly can’t remember the last time I heard Floating Points get so deep. This has a really strong Classic Rock/Progressive Rock/Psych Rock influence to it, but it’s all done very smoothly. Listening to this I honestly feel like I’mm flying over the desert and looking down at it, it’s quite stunning. “Silurian Blue” is Floating Points at his most vast, and shows him creating an atmosphere like nothing he’s every even touched. Plus, I really do enjoy the very progressive elements, as this one has a few different sorts of movements. Then of course, there’s also a lot of the same sounds that Floating Points has dealt with for years, like the sort of jazzy undertones. This, as far as an electronic single goes, is overwhelmingly powerful. It’s emotional, beautiful, and most of all seriously visual. What an awesome moment for Floating Points. Then we have “Kites” which is the most straightforward track we’ve heard here so far. It’s a little less ambient and more straight up electronic, but it still works great with the feel of this album. It also gives it a sense of well needed playfulness, which is really nice after the very vast couple of tracks we’ve heard so far. “Kites’ reminds very big sounding however, and when things speed up it goes from playful to stunning very fast. Overall, this track is by the books Floating Points, but while it’s pretty damn straightforward, it’s still very likable. I also really love some of the effects that slowly work their way into this track as it rolls on, giving this track the very vast sound that it was lacking. It’s also just a really nice continuation of this albums very cold and ambient sound.
This album continues on with it’s most ambitious and gigantic track, “Kelso Dunes”. One things for sure, I do really like the way this one’s intro works in the elements of the previous track. It remains to be a very airy, ethereal listen. But I love that about it, it gives just so much depth to Floating Points’ music. This track is by far the most at peace sounding, even though there’s a whole lot going on within those spacey keyboards. I think what remains to make this album so powerful though is just how unbelievably quiet these tracks get at points. It gives this such a live and unscripted feel to it. Each one of these guitars as they pop in seem to have so much life in them. Not to mention, Floating Points continues to have a seriously progressive influence thrown in. “Kelso Dunes” takes it to the next level by having just so much going for it. For example, the very beefy bass licks on this one that pop in make this one speed up really nicely. I can’t shake just how adventurous this feels at points. To be honest, this is far more than anything I expected to hear from Floating Points. I feel like you can enjoy this however and not even think about the concept of everything. It’s instrumentally dense, from the spacey synths and the strangely intense drums, as well as the continued very far out guitars. Did I mention that all of this is only the first 5 minutes. As the track rolls on for it’s concluding 7 minutes, it just gets more and more truly intense, there are even some great jam elements in here. I couldn’t be more impressed. This album ends off with “Lucerne Valley” Were back to the very subtle way this album started off here. It’s very spacey, and very lonely sounding with each instrumental sounding so distant. There isn’t that much going on here, but it’s the sort of empty, ethereal and atmospheric ending I wanted to hear. While it’s not flashy, it makes up for that in personality.
Rating: 7.8/10
Give A Listen To: "Silurian Blue", "Kites". "Kelso Dunes"
Overall Thoughts: While this album is very VERY short, this album packs a punch. This is by far Floating Points most ambitious and adventurous album to date. The atmosphere's are vast, the instrumentals are top notch, and I feel like Floating Points does a great job in bringing in some seriously visual music. These are some patience testing tracks, but the results are stunning and rewarding.
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