Ellicist | Point Defects
Morr Music (LP/DL)
Springs have sprung on the opener, Hennepin, and the duo Ellicist (Thomas Chousos & Florian Zimmer) is off to an eventful start on their latest Point Defects. Their murky, quirky sound combines elements of abstraction, noise, electronics and synthetic nature. There’s is a swampy universe where engines don’t kickstart, where sluice-like regurgitation is the norm while night creatures devour the surroundings. The first three tracks (also including Lilei and Passage People) uniformly fold into one another.
The highlight here, aside from the wondrous sound effects, is the assorted, moderated and otherwise unexpected percussion. It’s as though layers of warm static and a beehive have collided mid air in slow motion and as they slowly tumble to the surface even that gives way, almost like a video game that just added a new level. There are hazy synth blurs by way of random chords that abruptly vanish. And suddenly a little post-techno gem, Ihnen Steg, is before our ears. Roughly translated to “your jetty” the sparkles and spray-paint can jitters and like a flowering ground cover shivering in the breeze. As it moves deeper into the track, the more retro-cosmic cinema it becomes. And in between there are plenty of pops, hiss and wavering filters that arbitrarily mask and reveal what could be pieces of encoded messages.
Somehow I’m nudged with elusively vague reminders of the incidental post-rock music of either To Rococo Rot, Kreidler and/or hints of Labradford. It’s only through the haze and transistor-like bits, croaking and jerking on the wild-style outdoorsy Ponds & Graves (listen above) that I begin to partially understand their off-Earth conjuring. And for all this sophisticated rumination it’s essential to point out that this is these gents’ debut! For that, alone, I am floored. Though it doesn’t deter my further listening, nor my appetite for more.
On the closer, Trace, they continue with the moody rhythmic points afloat and rocking, swaying, back and forth. It’s a dreamlike world, slightly discombobulated, but reflective of fleeting out jazz and post-electro-pop. They make no pint in covering small defects, and utilize sounds of falling, of movement, quite effectively, and in doing so keep your ears active between channels.
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