PHAELEH

TIDES (Afterglo)

14/20

In a furrow where cosmic atmospherics and tuneful melancholy collide, classically trained Bristolian musician Phaeleh’s debut LP, 2010’s Fallen Light, became synonymous with IDM – a catch-all term coined by the hipsterific label brigade in response to the glut of post-ambient producers of the 90s.  Lest we forget his emergence during the warbling proliferation of dubstep, his opus was one that curtailed the rabid, bass-heavy brain melts and club-friendly beer swilling for a motif more akin to a 6am conspiracy theorist plotting paranoid scenarios to the backdrop of a nightmarish comedown. His follow-up, Tides, is of a similarly bereft nature, crafting an intricate dance for the cerebral, not the body, focusing on slow-burning instrumentation, not instant gratification. Lead single, Whistling In The Dark could well be the dissonant symphony to the latest Planet Earth special on ‘Living Landscapes’, as could the entirety of Tides’ parts, as it seldom fails to transcend the dewy-eyed decadence of its predecessor. It’s not without folly, though, the overly sinewed textures can be numbing to point of stupor, or worse, comatose. But it’s the inclusion of guest vocalists Jess Mills (on percussively tribal, gently two-stepped tinged Storm), Soundmouse (on staccato stringed, sultry pop earworm Here Comes The Sun) and Cian Finn (on the sumptuously refrained, reggae/R&B textured Night Lights) that will really keep you swooning during that post-rave purgatory. Phaeleh is certainly back en route with his second, albeit treading the same beaten track, but it’s another esoteric triumph for a man of extreme sophistication.

– – – – – – – – – –

Words: Joshua Nevett