Telas - Nicolas Jarr: Review
is an experimental music producer who has had a very busy 2020 so far, dropping an EP and album under his Against All Logic house music moniker and a dark ambient solo album under his own name. Given how much I've enjoyed his music in the past and my positive reception to both his records this year I was excited for this album, but weary that some of his past solo records that feel less definitive have fallen short of his highlights.
Review By Lavender:
Nicolas Jaar may already be the hardest working man in 2020, even if some of his material may have been floating around for years. With a cool album cover and four tracks each of which push well beyond 10 minutes I wasn't sure what to expect from Telas, but ultimately it adds up to one of the less effective and least essential pieces of the Nicolas Jaar discography so far.
Each of these tracks is long enough to be a completely isolated experience of their own so we will take them on one by one starting with the first track Telahora. It's the longest track of the bunch and kicks off with some dissonant clangy percussion and what sounds like passages of brass instrumentation. This leads into a second and much longer portion of shrill pseudo ambient electronics that feels straight out of the Tim Hecker playbook. Around 10 minutes in some more muted distortion gives way to rumbling bass and reverb heavy keys that don't really stick around for as long as some of the other less interesting sounds here. The final portion of the song sounds like it could have come from Cenizas earlier this year but I'm not particularly blown away by it and the second half of this track adds up to far less than the first.
The second half of the record is definitely better than the first starting with Telahumo which kicks off with some lo-fi keys that remind me of something I'd hear fluttering over an Against All Logic song. With the nearly toe tapping bass hit keeping the energy up the entire first half of the song is basically one passage that I think is pretty great. The transition into the songs second half comes completely out of nowhere and takes a really long time getting going. I actually like the second half of the song as well once it hits its stride and transitions into an almost triumphant ascending key line that stands out as one of my favorite moments on the record.
The last song Telallas is probably my favorite on the album despite being strangely disjointed, it's sonically rewarding. So many of the sounds here from the bouncy percussion to the dissonany synths just work really well and I find the soundplay really compelling. The track is the most consistent and despite the fact that it doesn't make any abrupt changes the little alterations throughout work wonders. It's the most cohesive song here and the only one that feels like it should actually be one track.
Telas isn't bad, but in the grander scheme of this style of music I can't see much of this records disjointed sound really translating after a few listens. While I enjoyed plenty of moments on this record at nearly an hour in length there is just as much time I'm spent waiting for when the next compelling sound will emerge. 6/10
Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:
This is an odd cover but I think it's really cool. It's very hard for black and white line work alone to be compelling but I feel this is very successful. It makes me question what the design is and look deeper to figure out any pattern. I think within the mass of lines it could have included some words that were a similar line weight to tie everything together and make is discernible as a cover.
For more experimental electronica check out my review of Clarence Clarity's Dead Screen Scrolls here
