SE - "L36"

Artist: SE
Album: L36
Year: 2010
Label: Tympanik Audio
Genre: IDM, Ambient, Post-rock
Website: www.myspace.com/seonline









Basics:
This is the second full length release from SE, again on Tympanik Audio. This time SE moves away from from the outer space-tinged rhythmic IDM to a more minimal, atmospheric and post-rock sound.

Good stuff:
- evolution. It is immediately evident upon listening to this that SE has grown significantly as a producer. The sounds and production are much bigger and fuller on this release. Everything sounds massive and fits perfectly into the mix. The pads sound immense and the drums really kick. The distorted hits are MUCH better this time around.
- style. This album sounds a lot different from the debut, however it sounds much more mature and cohesive. This album hangs out much more in almost post-rock territory and would fit at home next to any act on n5md. The way he made tracks that were heavily ambient with minimal IDM glitches and beats is still present somewhat here, on tracks like Mimikry
- variation. One thing I liked about his debut was that there was a good amount of variety in the tracks. L36 is the same way.
- Good sound design. This doesn't sound too much like any other artist or record; each track has a very distinct sound that binds them all together, while each track is able to form its own identity.
- Very cool remix from Subheim to close out the album

Bad stuff:
- style. If you liked the spacey sounding stuff it's mostly gone.
- sometimes I think it can be a little too minimal, and too few changes within a given song.

Summary:
If you like any of the stuff on n5md than you should definitely check this out. A great album for fans of post-rock influenced IDM/electronica. Very mature sound. It keeps more on the atmosphereic/ambient side of things, so if you enjoy that and don't mind more sparse beats, give it a listen.