sveldt

"bi-polar" (EP, 2007)

I was introduced to sometime producer, sometime musician Simon Stansfield at last year's Infest festival. A joint acquaintance mentioned my website to him and suggested Stansfield hand over a copy of his bipolar EP - which he kindly did. Messing around with sound is what sveldt does... with very mixed results. At risk of coming across as 'safe', for me the pinnacle on this six-track EP happens to be the most accessible entry. The faintly Orbitalesque amsx is everything intelligent dance music should be. Carried by some creative shuffling beats and fragmented synth lines, this really comes together as it progresses to ever more compelling heights. An outstanding track.

It's regrettable that the other five tracks (everything here is, of course, instrumental) not only never match the distinction of amsx but choose to go in another direction altogether. Not bothering with anything resembling traditional musical structures, these are varied forays into musique concrete. Only lz-35 skirts with something remotely close to the more familiar ground of amsx, the remainder are strictly for hardcore experimentalists. 5/10

Rob Dyer (May, 2008)

Official website: http://www.myspace.com/sveldtmusic