Wahn - Black Sea

 

Released: April 18 

This latest release from French electronic composer Wahn is a mesmerizing combination of pulses and rhythms that meld into odd atmospherics effectively. It’s not really a categorizable result either. There’s definitely a bit of techno influence in the rhythms, although there are no full drum kits or anything resembling a danceable beat. Instead, it takes those neat little pulses and interweaves them with deeply abstract soundscape elements to give a slightly surreal experience. Even in the very first track you can hear these themes emerge. There’s a rather steady bass pulse that goes for a good bit of the track that is accompanied by this uniquely textured high sound that I like to call the “crispy bits.” These crispy bits come back periodically throughout the album and are one of my favorite elements. I’m not sure why but it just feels like it’s gently tickling my ears and I love the texture they add. 

“Abyssal Oaths” plays heavily into this with the crispy treatment on weird little pieces of random percussion. This track also seems to be one of the less rhythmic pieces insofar as there isn’t really a steady pulse to latch on to in this case. But there are these unusual pieces of stuttered drums. They are allowed to pick up the slightest bit of steam but then disintegrate in the sound space, intermittently becoming a piece of crispy noise. “The Black Tide” brings back those pulsing elements, with bass and little sweetener pieces of audible glitter. Those glittery pieees feel almost too pretty for the context of the song but even those get wrapped up in the FX twisting, going from sparking pulses to seething pieces of noise and then returning to their original state. It’s all this wonderful blend of hyper-abstract dark textures that run into more conventional tech sounds in a weird and wonderful melange.