Subskan – Ambidextrous Asylums (CD Album – Hymen Records)
Genre/Influences: Experimental, IDM, glitch, ambient.
Background/Info: Belgian artist Jean-Marc Polet has already been active for a couple of years now, but doesn’t release new material at regular basis. His new work features 12 cuts.
Content: One thing is definitely clear; Subskan is an artist trespassing all sonic boundaries. His work can for sure be labeled as ‘industrial’, but you rapidly hear the compositions are going much further. The tracks are like sonic colleagues, which are now more into experimental and even glitch music and then carried by heavy, broken rhythms recovered with haunting atmospheres. But the atmospheres are quite progressively getting more wafting and even a bit dreamy-like. The work is filled with countless details, sometimes a bit like mixing opposite elements, but in the end quite compact, complex and beautiful.
+ + + : Jean-Marc Polet can be seen as an artist who wants to create and innovate. He for sure used familiar influences, but the way he brings them all together has something refreshing. He doesn’t hesitate to bring different and sometimes a bit conflicting aspects together, but the result simply works and makes sense. I like the global progression running through this album, which reveals a great final part. It’s not exactly the kind of music, which is easy to grasp, but that’s precisely what I like when discovering music.
– – – : The complexity and experimentalism of this artist also are the main difficulties you might encounter when discovering this work. Especially the opening cuts are pretty experimental-like, but quite progressively it becomes more fascinating.
Conclusion: Subskan is nothing less than an experimental artist composing with a styled approach while giving you a part of reverie.
Best songs: “Orgomethylium”, “Natagon’s Memento”, “Coma Templa”, “Evo4”, “Forgotten”.
Rate: (7½).
Since you’re here …
… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can - and we refuse to add annoying advertising. So you can see why we need to ask for your help.
Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
The donations are safely powered by Paypal.
