- Inigo Kennedy, unusually, has pursued the digital side of production with much the same kind of focus as the analogue junkies do analogue. The way in which he uses a typical Detroit template—simple techno drums and synth patterns, as two clear sides to the tracks—in The Darkest Valentine, but with a clear digital sheen in the place of analogue warmth, may turn off some (after all, a fundamental principle in music is that familiarity breeds contentment), but the yang to that yin is the shiny clarity and brightness, not to mention it being an obvious but rarely-used method of breaking the mould—and that's always a good thing.
Simple riffs cascade in "Obsidian," cathedral-like and resonant, and "Quagmire" is darker, urgent and imbued with doom. The increased detail and flexibility that a digital setup has as an advantage over analogue (example: Reaktor over Moog Modular) once again brings out Kennedy's experimentalist touch that he showed on "The Shard" earlier this year. It doesn't sound like it's been through a shredder like that did, though, it's not as extreme; instead there is, for example, pitch bending that has such a clear trajectory you can almost trace your finger through the air after it on "Obsidian," more pitch shifting on the cymbals in "Quagmire," and acres of reverb that sound like they've been through algorithms rather than antechambers on both.
Tracklist A Obsidian
B Quagmire