12.11.18

Let’s get the obvious out of the way here: nothing on Cocoon Crush is as big, bolshy, or brain-jiggeringly massive as Objekt’s 2017 track Theme from Q. With his first full-length release since 2014’s Flatland, Objekt – real name TJ Hertz – scuttles between weather-worn ambience (Nervous Silk), gallery-space crackle (Another Knot) and the odd lump of intergalactic trip-hop (Deadlock) in true PAN fashion.

The result is an album that seems determined to burrow deep under the listener’s skin, and it largely does so. This is, in part, down to the absurdly detailed level of sound design that Hertz applies to each of his angular avant-deconstructions. Take Secret Snake – a dizzying assemblage of Baikal-deep sub-bass, fleshy percussive tics, and the kind of rainforest-ready audio dampness that Donato Dozzy and Neel run riot with as Voices from the Lake. It’s sawn in two by one of the most satisfying lead-lines we’ve heard all year.

More of a comedown companion than a club classic, Cocoon Crush sees Hertz in a largely sombre mood, and he’s all the better for it. This is an album to be savoured in a granular level, a mosaic to be poured over time and again.

Josh Baines