Introduction
Nyctophiliac – Nyctophilia
Artist: Nyctophiliac
Title / Release Page: Nyctophilia
Release Date: 2014 Dec 15
Genre: Downtemp / Trip-Hop
License: CC BY-NC-ND
Media: MP3
Pricing: Free / Donation
Label: Dusted Wax Kingdom
Rating: ★★★★★★★
It’s the middle of the night, the night that you embrace, the night that you love. You need a soundtrack for the night. Nyctophiliac’s Nyctophilia may just be the soundtrack you are looking for.
Nyctophiliac’s Nyctophilia
Just what is nyctophilia? It is a preference or love of the night or the dark. This would make a nyctophiliac a person that loves the dark or the night. In a way, this release could be thought of as an eponymous release from Nyctophiliac.
What he has gathered in his first six track release on Dusted Wax Kingdom is a set of tunes that are representative of the night. The slightly different perspective, sloght distortion that many sounds take on in the dark. The mostly slowed-down feeling of the night.
But there is something else in this work. There is a sense of isolation. All of these sounds are coming at you. They aren’t shared with someone else, they are the things that can unnerve your feeling to solitude. They make you shiver or quiver. They are the disturbing parts of your dreams that can turn into nightmares.
Nyctophiliac describes himself as:
A beatsmith whose insomnia has led to him becoming emaciated, he is haunted by dark samples of recurring imagery. No longer able to think clearly, he suspects that the bizarre instrumentals are a concerted effort to drive him insane.
And that is born out in this recording. All of the details that make things that go bump in the night seem strange and unnerving. There is the isolation, an edgy-ness, and other-world like quality to the whole thing.
Conclusion
This is the first release from Nyctophiliac on Dusted Wax Kingdom. It’s a solidly produced set of tunes, with a strong ambiance. The theme of the night, and the slightly distorted perspectives, and wavering between dreams and nightmares is nailed perfectly. the only thing that keeps this from getting a higher score is the fact that many of the ideas (and even quite a few samples) don’t quite take this release to a new level for me. The theme of the night has been a subject of Trip-Hop and Acid jazz for many years, so this needed to really take me someplace else to get a higher score. But still, it’s a solid release that is good listening.
