Dark Ambient Review: Anomalies
Review by Casey Douglass
ProtoU is one of my
favourite dark ambient artists. I think I’ve reviewed more of her
albums than I have any other artist. Which says something. Two of her
albums were in my personal Top Dark Ambient Relaxation Albums as
well. Which says something too. So here we have Anomalies, her
latest album, and one that, for me, seemed to have a cyberpunk
aesthetic.
The album description
is one of dreams and memories. If that’s so, I went to a realm
of churning pipelines, crackling electricity and strange robots. This
began with the first track: The Escape. The light drone led me into a
gentle rhythm and cushioned soundscape, but one that seemed
industrial. The best way I can think of describing it is like a bird
flying through the kind of tunnels you might have seen in the
real-world scenes of The Matrix. This culminated in it emerging into
a massive, night-filled crater, maybe one caused by some kind of nuclear detonation. There is an increasing fuzz to the track, and some nice field-recordings of rain nestling
amongst "egg-shell pebbly crackling" and echoing beats. Quite an
opening track.
If that track was the
emergence into the crater at night, the next: Transparent Clusters,
was for me, the sun rising and casting its golden rays into the
crater. It opens gently with some interesting sounds, one like
someone flicking a plastic straw over and over. Dripping water
peacefully hits the ground and later, sets up a bit of a beat as it
seems to hit a plastic container or something. A rising tone seems to hint at the
sunrise, and for me, this light shone on all of the debris and
discarded things. A dump basically. Later in the track, piano notes
and furtive movements hint at the life of things amongst the rubbish.
Track three is my
favourite track, and runs with the junk-yard theme even more.
Electric Grounds begins with a deep, bassy sound, gently clicking
metal joining it. The sounds tell tale of something moving. Fast
paced notes enter the ears like boiling atmosphere, with static and
hisses as the moving thing gets closer. For me, this was a kind of
robot, hulking and steaming as it searches through the garbage. With
this in mind, some of the clattering sounds might well be caused by
it picking up old shopping trolleys and emptying out their contents.
Some of the peripheral tones seem to embody that of an air-raid
siren, which again, for me, reinforced the post-nuclear feel. The
track ends on a lighter feeling, maybe the bot having found something
of interest amongst the rusted metal and discarded smartphones.
This particular
narrative seemed to end at track three for me. The next track: Lucid
Sequences did seem more dreamlike and ethereal to me. The track that
follows though: Chamber of Visions, is my other favourite track on
Anomalies. Chimes and echoes, and what could be the sound of millions
of dead leaves cascading down the walls. Ghostly swells and cries
sound, alongside gently tapped notes and whisper-like tones. The
sounds of machinery emerge, creating a thrumming soundscape that ends
with what could be a “real world” scene, people bustling at a
tram station, going about their commutes. I really liked how the
unreal seemed to become more real in this track, a bridge between the
soundscape reality and the reality we might recognise.
The final two tracks,
Ghost in You (Part 1) and Pellucid Waters, were two more tracks that
seemed more nebulous to me. I enjoyed the sounds in them, whether it
was the gently clinking machinery, distant voices and warm static of
the first, or the field-recordings of water in the second, but there
was less to hang my hat on, image wise, so to speak, in these tracks.
Anomalies is
another brilliant album from ProtoU. I was pleasantly surprised by
the cyberpunky feel for me, as that wasn’t something I was
expecting going in. I appreciated the relaxing field-recordings and
the way that lightness and darkness seemed to play with each other,
and certainly enjoyed my time with the album. If you like the
smoother, darker kind of dark ambient with a bit of lightness to
relieve the murk, check out Anomalies and other albums of
ProtoU’s.
Visit the Anomalies
page on Bandcamp, and check out the Electric Grounds below:
I was given a review
copy of this album.
Album Title:
Anomalies
Album Artist:
ProtoU
Label: Cryo
Chamber
Released:
November 12, 2019
