Exosphere - "Where Nobody Goes"

Artist: Exosphere
Album: Where Nobody Goes
Year: 2012
Label: Raumklang Music
Genre: IDM, Ambient
Website:  www.raumklang-music.com

 

 

 

Basics:
Debut album from IDM/Ambient producer Exosphere. A rather downtempo affair thick with ambient atmospheres and lowkey, glitchy beats.

Good stuff:
+ Cold, muted atmospheres that remind me a lot of DNN and even arctic ambient such as Biosphere's Substrata. A cold, overcast day in winter with the muted sun above and snowflakes blowing around you. Low visibility, but not unpleasant. Good use of pads and drones to mold a cohesive mood for the entire album.

+ The percussive elements fit in well with the atmospheres. Exosphere utilizes a good, clicky sound that I really enjoy in this type of IDM. He doesn't push the limits, but uses enough glitches and variation to keep the listener interested. It feels like the beats exist in the eye of this slowly rotating tempest of arctic winds.

+ Melancholic, plucky melodies appear quite often and generally mesh quite well with the overall mood. Not terribly unique or interesting, but undeniably satisfactory.

+ The Access to Arasaka remix is likely the best song on the album. He puts his trademark futuristic cyberpunk gloss over the nighttime winter soundscape "T-Y" and makes it considerably more complicated and deep. I hope that Exosphere took some notes and amps up the intricacy of future work.

Bad stuff:

- Some of the melodic elements, such as in "Azure", have an annoying music-box-y tone and in most cases, these melodic sections just loop over and over for the song's duration without significantly altering themselves.
- Nothing that takes this to the next level. While it provides an entertaining listen, it's more or less standard issue ambient/idm which you can find on a number of netlabels.

Summary:
Nothing life changing, but it will definitely appeal to fans of DNN, Architrav, Pleq, Huron, etc. If you are looking for something that focuses on cold, distant atmospheres coupled with unintrusive, clicky IDM beats than you should check this out.

Overall Rating: 7/10