Various Ambient Not Not Ambient
An interesting experiment for a label often gleefully writhing around in pixels, stutter, and electro-twee, […]
An interesting experiment for a label often gleefully writhing around in pixels, stutter, and electro-twee, Ambient Not Not Ambient sees Audio Dregs assemble a motley collection of artists for a stab at genre subversion. Many of the artists here either break the form’s rules–or their own rules (particularly if their game is ambient music to begin with). White Rainbow–a Portlander who specializes in New Age-y vibes–reverts to the softened glitch/IDM music he perfected years ago as [[VVRRSSNN]]. E*Vax (a.k.a. Evan Mast, one half of Ratatat) trades in his synthy downtempo ethos for some non-tempo swells of sea-blue sound. And while playing at the edges is nothing new for English techno experimentalist AM/PM, he notably provides at least one of the titular “nots,” dropping in a solid, if muffled, 4/4 kick and subverting the subversion even further.