Much is being made about the fact that Eskmo is the first release from venerable UK label Ninja Tune since marking their twentieth anniversary with a retrospective box set. But it may be placing too much on the shoulders of San Franciscan Brendan Angelides to say that his debut record sets the tone for the next chapter in the Ninja Tune book of electronic music. Eskmo certainly follows the lineage of trip/hip-hop and electronica that has come before him on Ninja Tune, but he has more in common with fellow Californians Baths and Flying Lotus than with Amon Tobin and Coldcut (however much of a debt he may owe the latter two). Eskmo is a glitched-out affair that blends hip-hop’s strutting beats with the left-field production elements that make it an album that rewards a good pair of headphones. The loping two-four beat of “Become Matter Soon, For You” is augmented by a menacing bass synth line that comes from behind the listener as skittery percussion hangs precariously at the outer edges of the left and then right channels – it’s the type of song that draws you in and strings you along in an entrancing way, and something that is repeated throughout the album. While opener “Cloudlight” is the first single (and a strong one at that), the album highlight is “Moving Glowstream” with its bottle and can percussion, insistent bass-line and the trance-y, sterile vocals that weave in and out.
Is it the sound of the future? Maybe. The sound of now? Most definitely. (Ninja Tune, www.ninjatune.net) Michael Elves
Winnipeg music & culture since 1989