Review: [ELJD009] Node – Phosphenes

Release: [ELJD009] Node – Phosphenes
Label: Elljud

Posphenes is the ninth release from Elljud, made by Node (Niklas Broman).

Phosphenes is a deep-sounding, delayfilled and almost hypnotic EP. The aquatic reference from Elljud is a good description; the sound is reminiscent of listening to sounds under water, a bit disorientating and quite interesting. The music itself is more or less dub/techno with a persistent beat, but with a lot of backbeat sounds and non-rhythmic elements.

For me, the highlight of the EP is “float“, which really does what it sounds like. Immense sound structures in a gigantic tank. A very enjoyable listen that you can get lost in.

I do get a feeling that the mixes could’ve been more enjoyable at parts though, especially in the opening track “depth” where much of the rhythm gets sucked up by the massive effects. Nodes music also requires a fairly good sound system to really be enjoyable, there’s a lot of low frequency bass and subtle sounds that will easily get lost in low quality speakers (I wouldn’t try to listen to this on the laptop speakers).

I’m fairly accustomed to his sound and have heard a lot of tracks by Node, and I do feel this is one of his better works. The two “float” tracks are excellent and should be in the music library of any fan of dubby techno, and though the rest of the tracks doesn’t reach the same level they are certainly very enjoyable.

Elljud