Suture

Album Review

Vancouver-based musician and producer Stephen Hummel designs his own instruments, most of them computer-based, and uses them to create his music. His second album under the project name SubtractiveLAD sounds very much like an IDM-influenced electronic take on the sound of Canadian post-pock as exemplified by groups like Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Do Make Say Think, or K.C. Accidental. These 12 instrumentals are rather lengthy, mostly running between five and eight minutes, and all follow the same general schematic: start slowly, with a single instrument or sound, then build into a crescendo of noise and beats that climaxes and then subsides. Hummel manages to ring a fair number of changes on this basic outline throughout the album, however, moving easily from the glitchy noise of the opening "Petals" to the funky, dance-oriented breakbeat of "Brokadocious" to the mellow ambient chill of "Rerum Natura." The unearthly sounds Hummel's homemade synthesizers make recall the rough D.I.Y. feeling of the early Krautrock albums, which along with the woozy post-rock vibe of the album makes Suture that rarity: an electronica album that appeals as much to rockists as to club kids.