Ricardo Donoso – The Deck Of An Ancient Ship (Digitalis)
Fucking BRILLIANT. Donoso’s previous works have sounded nothing like this. This is new. And not just for Donoso. New for life. Like a freaky hybrid of Gas, Goblin, and OPN. It’s an IDM trance. Or an anti minimal techno. He’s taken his experience with raves in Brazil and stripped them down. No beats, no drums, just the in between moments. With minimal techno, you get mostly beats and a few skitterings of whatever. Progress Chance is just the skitterings. The motorik is gone. You’re left with a mostly foreboding/slightly uplifting beam of dusky arpeggiated synths, beautiful in their simplicity, blissful in their ambience. This is mind music. You can space the fuck out and let your brain imagine soaring through Jupiter’s red eye or you can dance to the naught-beats while you brain fills in the blanks. It might not sound all that original on paper, but this is some straight up one-of-a-kind shit. Donoso gets the trophy for coolest synth record of the year.