Kh3rtis - Intervoidal II

Released: July 17

The second release in Kh3rtis' Intervoidal series is a lovely little bit of space-faring psychedelic downtempo that relies heavily on improvisational techniques in a setup inclined towards live performance. The music is rather soothing and hypnotic overall with relaxed rhythms and light drums with guitars, synths, and other melodic elements flitting about around these foundational elements. And of course there is that deep and rich bass that he has quite a penchant for. The EP consists of just four tracks, but each feels like its own little roughly eight minute introspective journey that utilizes slow builds and breakdowns in long arcs that feel gentle and calming, each with their own particular arrangements.    

Opening with "Plains," we get tight and perky percussion that lays out a wonderful little rhythm. The other elements slowly come about in the mix once the drums have fully let their presence known with that smooth little guitar lick carrying the tune as a mono synth play out a moving little melody with a slight funk inflection. "Dependent Independency" bring about a slightly darker tone overall, but this almost jazz-inflected piano improvisation adds something of a bright note to the track overall. The percussion on this one is also a bit deceptive as it begins with something that sounds a bit closer to glitch and IDM than anything else but then slowly evolves into something that feels closer to a minimal house track by about halfway through. 

  

"Spirals" comes across as very much an ambient track for roughly half of its runtime, until the drums fully drop in bringing something like an Enya-meets-old-school-R&B vibe. This vibe is even more amplified around the five minute mark when we get a tasty guitar solo that comes in that sounds rock or blues inpspired in tone but 90's R&B in compostion. Absolutely lovely to me. But the final track comes out as my favorite, simply due to the deceptively simple arrangement and the very prominent snare. It definitely has all the trapping of something that could be a hip--hop instrumental with some similarly excellent guitar and synth work that shows up a bit later on. It all swirls together quite nicely.