Senking

Producer Jans Massel has put out a fine release on the exceptional electronic label Karaoke Kalk. Composed of deep throbbing bass lines, restrained beat structures and a sparse synthesis thereof, this album is not so much shaped by the sounds on it as what is not there. This CD works with implied, not overtly heard, sounds; overtones are used in the same manner as seeing the top part of an iceberg floating across arctic waters but not the mass beneath. Silencer is filled with head bobbing, submerged rhythms and subtle melodies. Generally, minimal electronic recordings tend to the abstract, but this album is strongly musical and quite groovable. Massel has done a phenomenal job of bringing vibrant life and organic warmth from what might otherwise have been mindless electrical impulses, if not for such meticulous sonic sculpting.