Review Dance

Lord Of The Isles

Subtle Thoughts

Lapsus • 2022

Text Tim Caspar Boehme
01.02.2023
The island lord has just released a new album, the radical »Night of the Endless Beyond«. Now he is following up with »Subtle Thoughts«. While »Night of the Endless Beyond« was expansive with tracks lasting up to eight minutes, Scottish producer Neil McDonald aka Lord Of The Isles is keeping it short this time. The thrust has remained the same: Slowly pulsating structures over which subtle melodies unfold, sounds that aim into the distance and don’t need a beat to get moving. When he additionally programmes rhythm machines, he limits himself to minimal gestures that provide more of an accent than a foundation. In any case, his instrumental pieces live from the interweaving of these sparse elements, and it is difficult to say what is a supporting element and what is filler. The distinction seems to be almost eliminated in his work. Lord Of The Isles doesn’t necessarily do anything outrageous, but he does have a rather unique way of painting sweeping pictures with just a few strokes or, to use another makeshift image, to tell a captivatingly laconic story. You can also use terms like ambient, downtempo or IDM, but that doesn’t really help beyond providing a very rough orientation. Detractors of electronic music also like to accuse it of triviality. »Subtle Thoughts«, we could assume, is so finely spun that we run the risk of simply overhearing the »relevance« of this music due to a lack of willingness. 
Buy at HHV
Lord Of The Isles
Subtle Thoughts
from 25.99€
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Tim Caspar Boehme

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