Monday 7 February 2022

Koreless "Agor" (2021)

 

Now at the mercy of Spotify's algorithms, I find myself immersed in the unknown, the platform feeding me new names one after another from its playlist system. I have to be picky with where to go. On occasion, one artist will captivate my intrigue more so than the others. Because of the songs Black Rainbow and White Picket Fence, I had to go deeper into this curious musician who's take on electronic music was off the beat and track from what I am used to. Glitched out and mysterious, its popular songs morph closer to normal conventions. Getting deeper into Agor reveals a few typical fundamentals have been torn up and thrown out.

These buzzy saw wave symphonies simmer and fizzle in both texture and tone. Metamorphic and fluid, its oscillations sway and groove in ever changing directions. Somewhere in the mix, something holds center, either the variety of plucked instruments or bursts of rhythm and tempo that come and go. Even then, notes curiously slide up and down in pitch. Percussion is illusive, often forming out of burgeoning instrumentation, feeling occasionally poly-rhythmic as its shuffling glitches and choped up vocal samples make for mirages and illusions.

The result is unique, an identity unlike much I've heard before it. Yesterdays Oneohtrix Point Never has a similar experimental quality but Koreless homes in on something particular, with varying success to my taste. Again it is convention that aids aesthetic into form as many of these songs go on ciphered tangents. Melody rubs shoulders with frequency and sequence. Rhythm seems to had no steady footing and the Nordic singing sampled is rearranged in the most curious manor. The take away is similar, another curious experiment in sound design with a few moments of convention one can fall into, otherwise attention is jilted by all the quirks of its inspiration.

Rating: 6/10