Introduction
Lwpss – Dreams Caught
Artist: Lwpss
Title / Release Page: Dreams Caught
Release Date: 2014 Oct 24
Genre: IDM / Downtempo
License: CC BY-NC-ND
Media: MP3 / OGG / FLAC
Pricing: Free / Name Your Price
Label: Nenormalizm Records / Self-Release
Rating: ★★★★★★★★
Dreams Caught by Lwpss is a release that transcends itself by taking different approach to mixing sound elements. Lwpss is breaking down the arbitrary walls between styles by making them interchangeable. And to prove the point this release contains remixes that emphasize different elements. The impression it leaves with me is that of a theme and variations carried out not within the compositions, but with the production.
Dreams Caught by Lwpss
Lwpss is Nikita Grishanov from Yekaterinburg, Russia. He says he “…write mostly soft and atmospheric electronic music using Renoise.” However, most artists that describe their works in a similar manner tend to be ambient artists who eschew standard melodies, rhythms, and harmony in search of something completely new and different.
Nikita, on the other hand, wanders between ambient, IDM and Downtempo styles. He is searching for ground that allows integrating the strongest elements of all these styles into a unique sound. And, to a large degree he has succeeded.
From the opening of Dreams Caught, Lwpss brings us into a world that is rich in text and melody. The hazy slow tones of ‘bus rides make me sleepy’ are punctuated with a light melody that drifts through, simulating the motion of a bus. But just a couple of tracks later there is the completely abstract piece ‘mx-global’ in which an almost sonar like tone is engulfed under a drone bed with the sound of birds chirping in the background.
If those are the extremes of the range in Lwpss’s style, it’s the mixture of them on tracks like ‘asleep on the bus’ which opens with a very dream-like drone, and slowly introduces a bass line, then noise in the background and finally a slow moving melodic line that are the embodiment of the style that Nikita is trying to achieve in this work.
But, the element that takes these concepts even further is in the remixes of several tracks on this release. For example, ‘melancholia’ is a very melodic, rhythmic sequenced piece. However, in the 23:59 Remix it opens as a very dream-like piece that eventually adds re-interpreted rhythms that sound more like a disturbed sleep instead of a a nice sleep. Even when the bass line enters, it is transformed from the sequence focused line of the original piece into a more drone like element.
In the end it’s the transformations that push this release into having a more timeless feeling. The pieces aren’t stuck being reflections of a certain time or place of the artist. The pieces are openly re-interpreted within the space of the recording, allowing further meditation on what really is the core of this music. This allows Lwpss to allow the listener to understand that all of these elements might appear related, but they are really independent. Any one element can take the place of another element and still be the same piece of music.
Conclusion
Sometimes a work is not dependent on when the artist has produced it. With Dreams Caught by Lwpss he shows us that works can be re-interpreted in ways that prove their timeless nature within the confines of the release itself. By mixing elements of IDM, ambient and downtempo styles he has provided a framework for re-imagining his work in a myriad of fascinating ways. It’s like a theme and variations done at the production level instead of within the compositions themselves.
