Friday 16 August 2013

Larvae - Exit Strategy, Ad Noiseam ADN160

I really wonder why I have missed presenting this album so far... Especially, when it was almost certainly No.1 album of 2012 (it missed this title by another late entry, to which I will dedicate the next post).



"Exit Strategy" is the latest album of I.D.M./experimental duo Larvae. And is completely different from their previous work, since it is actually a downtempo album with lots of pure/ambient, I.D.M. and trip hop elements, with an old-school ethereal feeling. I guess you got the point about what you're going to listen... The album is rather melancholic and sweet, with a very clever blending of all the previously mentioned musical influences without getting boring and never repeating.

Another thing that impresses in this work is how all these elements are mixed in the same track, shifting seamlessly from low to high tempo parts, or creating a dynamic change in the feeling of the song without changing the tempo but only the samples used. Characteristic example is the following track


If you ever listened to their previous works and liked them

1) This is MUCH better and mature than anything before

2) You will be happily surprised that such clever musicians exist nowadays

3) You will listen to this album for months/years

The only bad thing with such releases, especially when they occur at the first years of a band's existence, is that they create high expectations for the following ones; expectations which most of the time are very difficult to fulfill. We'll have to wait and see...


For the time being, enjoy one of the best albums of 2012, surpassed only by...