Displacer – Moon-phase

The listener is really spoiled with this debut album by Displacer, the project of Mike Morton from Toronto, Canada. It is filled to the brim with over 76 minutes of beautiful electronic sounds. The stylish digipack also looks great and futuristic, printed on special rough paper. The dark technoid sound on ‘Moon_phase” is very spacious, with nice moody synth layers and isolated beats, which sometimes gain in intensity and variation, and then fade away again. The mood is pleasantly melancholic and dreamlike, taking you on a journey with unendless explorations.

The compositions appear to be very thoughtful and effective. Most songs are rather tranquil, though the sometimes powerful (break)beats certainly prevent them from becoming ambient. A few songs are a bit more energetic, like the fabulous ‘Deep’, with indeed some very deep beats. ‘Atrophied’ is also impressive, again with ultra deep beats and some metallic d&b percussion, and sparse female speech samples. At times I have to think a little of the more laidback work of Gridlock, an act that also contributed a remix to this album. Other remixes are delivered by Ch District (a new M-Tronic signing) and Beefcake.

Displacer has delivered a highly mature, and very succeeded album here. Ingredients of atmospheric and classical ambient, industrial elements and glitchy IDM are perfectly blended into a very effective mixture. Highly modern, but still remaining alot of feeling. Towards the end of the album a few songs even show an EBm-ish sound, like ‘Unknown’. The production is also very clear and bright. Wonderful and intense music to listen to late at night, especially with your headphones on.

artist: Displacer
label: M-Tronic
details: 15 tracks [Chemical element B5]