Vladislav Delay is the will-o’-wisp of electronic music. He flickers in different areas, in manifold guises (Sistol, Luomo, Uusitalo, Conoco) and sometimes he even leads the way. Moreover, the Finn Sasu Ripatti (which is his common name) doesn’t dread meeting other luminaries, such as Antye Greie-Fuchs (AGF), Craig Armstrong or Moritz von Oswald. At the Vladislav Delay Quartet, he now plays together with Mika Vainio (Pan Sonic), Lucio Capece and Derek Shirley. Their debut was just released at Honest Jon’s, and again the label demonstrates its courage: ’cause this music is different. The first track, Minus Degrees, Bare Feet, Tickles, already shows that Sasu Ripatti reinvents himself yet again. This has very little to do with the Vocal-House-recordings he did as Luomo together but only on the margin of his Dub-experiments as Vladislav Delay. Firstly, the electronics seem to exhale a deep humming sound, a clarinet is chirping atonally and the Hi-Hat plays a vague rhythm. After eight minutes, the neighbor knocks on the walls of the wooden hut: disturbance of the peace. Santa Teresa takes the bass into its center, while it patiently, yet continuously ties loops together. Electronic, saxophone, drums appear, create impressive sounds, leave, create no sounds, appear, leave. It’s this lack of movement that is the album’s biggest problem, especially in the first half of the 60-minutes-debut: The instruments act to one another, but the avoid to act with one another. This structure starts to change on Hohtokivi, and the merely common approach of four musicians becomes actual music. Especially in the last 20 minutes, the full potential of these four outstanding musicians’ get-together is finally tapped. When these group-dynamics take effect, an intense sound comes into being, powerful and energetic.
Vladislav Delay
Whistleblower
Keplar