Introduction
Artist: Weldroid
Title / Release Page: Elektronvolt
Release Date: 2015 Sept 27
Genre: Electronic
License: CC BY-N_ND
Media: MP3 / OGG / FLAC
Pricing: Name Your Price
Label: Self-Release / BandCamp
Rating: ★★★★★★★★
When i interviewed Weldroid last year, he said he was thinking about taking a break from the character. Well, since then, he has released three live recordings. Now comes Weldroid: Elektronvolt, a release that is new take on the IDM / EDM styles that he has become his trademark.
Weldroid: Elektronvolt
This release is an evolution of style, a deconstruction and re-construction of the familiar in order to make them fresh and almost unfamiliar.
From the opening, this release begins with a surprise: a short piece of ambient music. It doesn’t feel like this is a piece that is designed to “set the stage” as much as it is to entice the listener into opening up to a new experience. Noise elements, and electronic Kalimba make a short statement that give the recording an air of mystery before launching into the first of three remixes on this release.
The remixes are: Friedrichshain (by Xenoton), Light As Rain (by Pinar Akbay) and Walkern (by Room of Wires). All three artists are veterans of the netlabel scene, and works afford Weldroid the chance to explore his use of noise and bit-crushing in forms that are unique to his style.
The remaining five tracks on this release allow room for experimentation: like the ambient / noise opening of Frozen Kingdom. But this isn’t Weldroid going off on a complete tangent from his previous, it’s more of the re-construction mentioned above: Weldroid finds ways to lay down the beats, while playing with bass lines and noises.
Possibly my favorite track on this release is Hidden Treasure, which builds into a medium-tempo EDM/IDM style from an opening that almost sounds like a drone and a series of distorted electronic bells and chimes… It’s as if an android was hearing music through distorted microphone, and trying to replicate it as he heard it.
Conclusion
This is a really cool release from Weldroid. Elektronvolt can be seen on one level to be an evolution of his musical style, but it’s also a reinvention of Weldroid as a character. Many of the dark and light elements are still present in this work, but now the noise and bit-crushed elements are being used in different ways. This brings a new life to the music, and often takes it in new, somewhat unfamiliar, and adventurous directions.
