“There were a lot of great albums out of DiN in the last 3 years, making of this Index 05 one of the best of this series”
We find that some albums from DiN were more difficult of approach? Here is a way to tame them from another angle! iNDEX05 celebrates the 50th opus of the very stylized English label which produced its very first album, Box of Secrets from Ian Boddy, in the autumn of 99. And as usual, DiN's boss concocts us a surprising compilation at each 10th album realized on his label. In a compilation which goes back as far as the autumn 12, either with the album Morphogenic from Parallel Worlds and Dave Bessell, Ian Boddy interlaces two titles from the 9 albums of this era in a mixing which respects the spirit of the composers, so creating a wonderful musical mosaic which closes the 80 minutes and where the various forms of rhythms get melt in ethereal, cosmic or totally gloomy ambiences.
The compilation begins with Borderlands, a title which also introduced the very beautiful Colour Division album released in 13 by the duet Boddy & Reuter. The music finds our ears with the same forms as King Crimson in a more Electronica version. The transition between the atmospheres of Borderlands flows very well until the black and infernal rhythm of Shinkansen East from Node 2 which is a superb comeback of Node in a pure style of England School as powerful as the good old Berlin School. The very atypical rhythm of Subgiants, from the rather eclectic duet Wøllo & Wöstheinrich, comes then. The first 13 minutes of iNDEX05 are some real dynamite, thus what's better than the music of Parallel Worlds & Self Oscillate and their structures of ambient and organic rhythm that we find on Ground Warmth? It's then the perfect time to glide on the cosmic journey of Ian Boddy with an extract of his purely analog soundscapes of his ambient Tone Science. And we slowly go adrift towards the furious Paradise Lost from the superb album Black Horses of the Sun by Dave Bessell. It's the perfect track to lead us towards the spasmodic and chthonian beat of Arcadia from Arc's Umbra, the best album of 2015. And at the time of writing these lines, Ian and Mark are working on the next Arc. Can't wait to hear this one! Denormal, from Parallel Worlds & Dave Bessell's Morphogenic, proposes the darkest and livened up moments of this album. This is an excellent choice to pursue the lugubrious promenades of Arc, whereas Never Reaching of the album Liverdelphia continues to present us an Ian Boddy who dreams about cosmos. So, you have here an extract of the last 9 opuses of DiN. Thin Air, from Node 2, proposes us a more seraphic facet of the English group. And yes, the dark atmospheres of the England School are always present here. Only the rhythm is sewn in the lightness of a joyful gambol. The idea to attach to it Dave Bessell's From Here to There, a member of Node, is very interesting. The fragrances and the spirit are very present here, just like in Above the Snow from Parallel Worlds & Dave Bessell. And so flows this 5th compilation of DiN! After the floating atmospheres of Tone Science, the DiN captain proposes us the rhythms always near of Electronica and often of England and/or of Berlin School the spheres such as with the very explosive Cherry Bomb that we find on the splendid Umbra. This is a pure E-Rock as we hope to hear again in the future. And as in the Colour Division album, from Boddy & Reuter who should release another album at the end of April, Slowfall ends iNDEX05 smoothly.
Superb! Splendid! Two qualifiers that your eyes meet constantly in my chronicles when I write about the music of the artists who lend their talent and boldness to the works of DiN. If we are far from the easily accessible EM here, it doesn't mean that it's not good at all. On the contrary! Since its creation, the English label always took a jealous care of creating works to the antipodes with a beautiful meshing of the kinds which go from the most eclectic perfumes of a contemporary Electronica and flirt advantageously with the corridors of the England and Berlin Schools. And the best way to discover this universe is by these brilliant compilations that are Index. And due to the comeback of Node, the solo album of Dave Bessell and the one of Arc, this is a must! Good discovery and good music …
Sylvain Lupari (April 2nd, 2017) *****
Available at DiN Bandcamp