Rami Abadir reached out from Cairo a little while back to share two new releases he’s a part of. Both feature an approach to ambient electronic music that incorporate a range of sounds applied with a warm, gentle touch.
Clattered Tell is a solo effort Abadir describes as “an anti-nostalgic work, attempting to deconstruct already existing electronic subgenres,” in the album’s notes. “I don’t want to restrict myself to any specific subgenre or sound. While working on this album, I challenged myself to distort, tweak or alter all the sounds that I came across or occurred to me, whether from my music memory or music I’ve listened to.”
The result covers a lot of ground, but maintains the unique consistency he was aiming for.
The six-track recording opens with “LUMINOUS,” a kind of space age love song to get us in the mood.
Next is “DECON$,” perhaps the album’s most literal interpretation of Abadir’s description. The sounds are jagged and the edits tight. Almost plunderphonics tight. Refreshingly for an electronic track, the beat is there but it doesn’t dominate.
“DFSE” opens in a similarly barbed wire vein. As it progresses, it switches back and forth between claustrophobic electronics and expansive ambience.
The other release Abadir shared features his collaboration with Onsy under the name 0N4B. You might expect a name like that (and song titles “dotdotdotone,” “dotdotdottwo,” etc.) to stand for even less conventional music. In fact, compared to Abadir’s solo release, dots | augsmatic diaspore is a lovely, easy listen.
There’s plenty of crunch on these six tracks, but they’re presented in such a calm, careful manner. Nothing overwhelms. This is downtempo for adventurous electronic music fans.