Right from the very first of this EP’s seven tracks, you get the vague feeling that Djrum has reinterpreted a sample here, and that it’s not really about hiking at all, but about reflection. Semantics don’t really matter here, though, because Felix Manuel is doing what he does best anyway: creating friction. With restless beat structures, polyrhythms and drum patterns reminiscent of Autechre – though not coming across as steely and disembodied, but rather down-to-earth and grounded.
Essentially, I Wander is a single jam by a hyper-nervous one-man jazz band which, despite its constant navel-gazing, doesn’t lose sight of its actual qualities: in the second part, these are the distinctive piano melodies that made Portrait With Firewood a masterpiece eight years ago. In the third part, the kick drums almost devour one another, so close do they come together, only to find their way back to comprehensibility at the last moment. Parts four and five are condensed into a centrepiece, during whose absurd capers grime, dub and IDM of the nerve-wracking sort fly through the shredder. Were it not for the unexpected storms of claps, the sixth part would be unremarkable. Even the soothing touch of melancholic strings in the final part does little to help; old wounds are torn open once more, and one is inclined to place the entire EP in a league of its own. For the exceptionally gifted with a penchant for exhibitionism, of course.
I Wander (Ep)
