What Was Before?

2019 release. Krystian Sheks work is nothing if not eclectic. Hes worked out his own mode of Namlookian environmental music across previous Carpe Sonum discs, whether building towering edifices of stratospheric ambient or subtly shaking the foundations through an array of well-coifed beatstuffs. Navigating its way through a sensuous variety of moods, his new one prides itself on establishing a beachhead of shimmering synthetic calm amidst a clutch of frothy, downtempo sequences. Sheks modus operandi here is restrained, tentative, almost dub-like, most pronounced in the delay-shimmer of the near four-minute Thumbnails, which, truth be told, could go on for another fourteen and never lose its poised, artfully crafted power. Later on, the delightful, sweet bromides laced within Cinnamon Rolls does much of the same thing, walking a gauzy, late-winter reverb-sheen with all the elegance Mssrs. Yayga, Grad_U, and others of similar persuasion execute. In other words, another marvelously wrought Shek-attack of pearlescent electronica, buffed with a fine shammy and shining on like crazy diamonds.