BUY THIS ALBUM: Arovane - "Atol Scrap" & "Icol Diston"

Going back to the glory days of IDM a little bit more, here are two huge albums that must be owned by any fan of old school IDM.

"Atol Scrap" is the first CD/album release from Arovane and quite possibly my favorite. A lot of people say that its a knock off of early Autechre, and it would be pretty hard to go wrong there. I don't find it to be a clone at all, but it is definitely in that vein of old school, melodic, atmospheric IDM. Even has the nonsensical song titles (which, I have to admit that I love. I know its likely a good IDM album if it has a fractal cover and nonsense titles). When I try describe this kind of thing I always think of "what machines dream of". Despite being his debut full length (he had some vinyls prior to it), it has incredible maturity. The sound design, sequencing and production is all top notch.

"Icol Diston" is a CD collection of some of his vinyl releases. It was released in 2002 and covers the first vinyls he released from 97-2000 or so. This one is very similar in style to "Atol Scrap". Again, a definite must own for fans of early IDM like Autechre, Funckarma, Jega, etc. Great, intelligent glitchy beats that aren't over the top wankery, huge atmospheres and beautiful, memorable melodic lines.





Despite being 10-12 years old, these albums more than stand the test of time, and are still considerably better than most of what is being released today. If you are a fan of IDM make sure you do not sleep on Arovane. Unfortunately, due to its age, some of his stuff can be hard to find. It seems that almost all his albums are for sale on discogs from many european sellers, but very few north american sellers. I was, however, able to find "Icol Diston" on amazon for about 9$ usd.

Atol Scrap on discogs: here
Icol Diston on discogs: here