Levon Vincent: Silent Cities

4-on-the-floor techno beats are largely absent. As a substitute, we hear irregular kick drums accompanied by a near-constant tattoo of eighth-note or Sixteenth-note hi-hats. Synth strings meander slowly above a yawning void of bass, accompanied on just a few tracks by a tinny synthetic piano that sounds prefer it was ripped out of a Chicago home observe and jettisoned in a again alley. Results are sparse other than a cold pall of reverb and the intrusion of dubby chords on “Birds” and “Mom Amazon.” Generally this music seems like lure, as on “Gattaca.” At different instances, it seems like early-2010s producers like Cooly G, CFCF, and Kuedo, who most popular fairly chords and easy synth patches to side-chains and sub-bass. What it actually does not sound like is dance music—nor does it sound like ambient music, as you’ll study when “Birds” bleeds into the crimson in its closing moments.

Silent Cities boasts a sly melodicism that makes it way more fascinating than if Vincent was merely holding down minor chords on synth pads. Counterintuitively, it additionally makes the music sound creepier; so does his use of simply intonation, which unlocks bizarre, microtonal harmonies. The melody of “Eternal Pleasure” lingers barely too lengthy on one notice till it sounds much less like a hook than an unwholesome guffaw. “Gattaca,” “Dawn,” and “Wolves” are primarily based on the sturdy chord progressions and brilliant synths related to anthems, however they circle endlessly as an alternative of constructing to something. On “Moonlight,” a single synth lead is backed by bass and drums, and it’s hilarious how the hi-hats race madly to the end line whereas the melody chases its personal tail in circles. We get a way of grandeur and triumph with no launch or climax, contributing to the album’s constant feeling of being awed by your environment however nonetheless hopelessly misplaced.

It’s exceptional how a lot Silent Cities diverges from the trajectory of Vincent’s full-lengths whereas nonetheless feeling like his prior work. This can be a lengthy, bleak, difficult album that envelops the listener in darkness and fog, and that’s additionally true of World Order Music and his gorgeous self-titled album from 2015 (and, to a lesser extent, 2017’s For Paris). Vincent says that is the primary album he made with no expectations of dancefloor play, as an alternative optimizing it for listening on headphones, ideally whereas navigating a metropolis. The elements of his music most alluring to the informal listener—dimly lit atmospheres, evocative synth sounds—are on the fore of Silent Cities, however that doesn’t make his music simpler to get a grip on. As a substitute, the thriller deepens with every hear, till it expands in your head right into a world greater and extra sprawling than even Vincent himself might think about.