Slowly but surely it becomes uncanny how Samuel van Dijk with each of his albums, each project continuously develops dynamics and tone colors of detail-obsessed productions. With him, as is well known, this does not run according to the motto »less is more«. No. More, more and more differentiation and expression is given to his releases every year, to which each fresh coloring adheres in metallic facets and indirectly affects the reception of the others, no matter whether past or upcoming release. Grower are the specialty of the Dutchman. From the until now completely underrated »Landforms«, which he dropped in 2017 as Mohlao without being celebrated for it, to the titanic ambient of Multicast Dynamics (last year even via Astral Industries) to the dub-infused NASA techno of »Spiritual Machines«, van Dijk has been advancing on a broad front into the front ranks of contemporary electronics for years. Among all his projects, VC-118A is probably the most developed and thus the benchmark of his own skillset, which by now lacks hardly anything. The thirteen highly condensed tracks on »Spiritual Machines« testify to this in a not infrequently impressive way. Who calls itself audiophile, may nevertheless put on the (best open) studio headphones. Because whether it is the darkly murmuring breakbeat of »Serge Extract« or the unreal dripping and steaming atmosphere of »System Of Connections«: this album flies through cinematic shallows in the entire Hz spectrum almost too exemplary. Here and there, many a craggy corner could be well tolerated, a bit of opacity, so more lo-fi. But then again: exceptional tracks of the caliber of »Industria« would have possibly suffocated under their own weight.
Spiritual Machines
