The primary Voices From the Lake album has taken on a legendary standing, like a Chosen Ambient Works 85-92 for the Berghain era. Donato Dozzy and Neel, already masters of trippy, ambient-leaning techno (as soon as known as “headfuck techno”) on their very own information, hit on some sort of circulation state after they made their collaborative debut LP. This was a cerebral fashion of techno that sounded prefer it grew out of the forest ground, the place rustling leaves and padding paws took the place of kick drums, and chords moved like swaying branches and timber. Since that album, pretty much as good a full-length because the style has birthed, every thing hooked up to the Voices From the Lake title—EPs, a stay album, the occasional remix, celebrated stay units—has strengthened their fame. With II, the duo lastly sits right down to create a follow-up that breathes the identical rarefied air as its predecessor. It doesn’t fully match up, nevertheless it comes rattling shut.
From the second the low finish rumbles to life on opener “Eos,” we’re again in superb terra cognita. The duo’s bass tone alone is a factor of magnificence, like a light-weight alloy that’s been hollowed out: You may really feel the sub in your chest, nevertheless it’s by no means heavy, and the upper frequencies drive the temper and melody as a lot because the synth leads do. Bass is the duo’s secret weapon, the sound that makes their music each propulsive and curiously nonetheless, laying down an earthy basis that feels extra natural than artificial.
Although there’s a naturalistic bent to the sounds on II—the percussion knocks like mischievous woodpeckers on the spacey, tranced-out “Montenero,” and there’s a suggestion of birdsong in “Mono No Koto”—that is hardly tree-hugging new-age music. The brand new document is extra rooted in deep, darkish, dubby dance music, together with a bassline on “Montero” that hits just like the foreboding strains of amapiano at the moment performed out by DJs like Mark Ernestus. Or the rippling darkwave synths on “Blue Noa,” which has a muscular runner’s construct, laborious and lithe: Assume Boy Harsher overlaying Nitzer Ebb for a late-’90s automotive business. With II, the musicians discover new issues to do with their chiffon basslines and pitter-patter drums, gently increasing the Voices From the Lake remit with out venturing too far out of their enchanted forest.
