distance prefix - nightfall EP

Released: July 16

Following up from his previous release the twilight interlude, distance prefix takes a step even further into the world of noisy and chaotic genre bending in this six track EP. There's elements from all over the spectrum of electronic music mashed into this album including dubstep and hip-hop inspired rhythms that evolve and devolve into glitch-ridden bits of chaotic goodness along with a lot of really varied melodic and harmonic content. Even the first track itself, "official acts," is a whirlwind of changing sounds that starts out with a gentle piano that slowly progresses into a an intense and energetic pile of glitches. By the midpoint, the soundscape we are now imbued in is unrecognizable and possesses an industrial kind of vibe with some weird semblance of drum and bass. 

This isn't to say that everything on this album is intense madness. "The last sunset" comes in as the third track and brings something of an ambient vibe on the synths and keys but something a little more downbeat on the drums. With this track, the drums are probably my favorite part as they import a steady rhythm onto the song that morphs into something a bit more abstract by the midpoint. It goes from a steady kick-snare-kick to something odd with a reversed feeling to it, almost like there's a wub-wub-wub that keeps popping up in the middle of all of it. It's kind of off-kilter but it felt just right in my opinion. 

The end of the album kind of throws away much of the rhythmic motifs and instead plunges us into more cinematic soundscape territory on "the melting telephone." Lots of tension building with rising vocal synths and percussion that hits only to further the atmosphere rather than giving us any kind of solid rhythm. The risers and the drones are doing most of the work here by setting an uncomfortable atmosphere that feels like its constantly moving but never in quite the same direction as it progresses. While it felt a little out of place in comparison to the rest of the EP, I think it works well as a closer by leaving things on a rather unsure vibe. It makes you wonder if this is the end of the story or if it is just going to lead into the next part.