DOLDRUMS

LESSER EVIL

Souterrain Transmissions

12/20

Airick Woodhead’s output as Doldrums is, on both aural and structural levels, exhausting. His compositions are densely layered exercises in psychedelic avant- pop (by way of some very brief glimpses of chillwave, EBM and, god forbid, witch- house) and baffling in their construction. Unfortunately, Woodhead’s dedication to filling every empty space with a new sample, loop, clattering woodblock or squealing synth jab means the results are sometimes incoherent. A lack of tunefulness isn’t necessarily a criticism, but Lesser Evil often suffers from it, with half-formed melodies and grooves appearing only to vanish within seconds. The most satisfying tracks like Sunrise, Holographic Soundcastles, Singularity Acid Face and Golden Calf display a pronounced sense of restraint; the results are at times beautiful, and far more engaging for their lack of battering cacophony. They therefore serve to exacerbate the frustration felt with the manic, anything-goes approach prevalent throughout most of the record. For all the criticism, Lesser Evil definitely sounds completely original. There’s no doubt Woodhead is something of a visionary talent, and when he learns to reign in his schizophrenic compositional tendencies, there’s every chance he’ll produce a record which feels greater than the sum of its parts, rather than confounded by them.

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Words: Tom Howells