[Reviewed by Peter Marks]
Delicate guitars lure us in to this EP and by the time they’ve finished playing we’ve been on quite the voyage.
Between all the sinewy beats and heady atmospheres there’s a world lost in longing which we’re getting to know on Amotken’s debut, it is a place which echoes across the mind like so many fractal shards of memory. You will dwell here and think back to places you’ve been in life and then be suddenly reminded in the midst of your reveries that there are only five songs he’s delivered; imagine if he’d done more, where would your thoughts take you then. It is both sobering and stunning that the fellow behind all of this operates so efficiently, not a note is wasted.
Grand progressions? Not really to be heard here, this is a no-frills romp through the wilder regions of the soul. You definitely become aware of how much ‘Salvo El Crepusculo’ has the more you play it; he isn’t just a skilled programmer, this man can play guitar. He doesn’t dabble or just pluck out random tones to underpin the electronic menagerie on display, he gives us entire bridges between the acoustic and synthetic via six strings. There are some places in life which are defined by the intensity they feature and Amotken is no different; what good is it to try and keep things safe and compartmentalized in the final analysis, let things go where they may.
It is this disregard for convention which makes what he’s done so very pleasurable to listen to. When he sits down and begins working on one of these creations, I seriously doubt he knows where he’s going to end up with it and does not care. This is a remarkable ability to have, the will to let go of the constraints imposed by technology and instead project your own vision of reality through it without any concern for either convention or reaction. If we don’t hear more from him at some point in the very near future I’ll be quite surprised, clearly there is a creative firestorm at work all throughout ‘Salvo El Crepusculo’.
He’s chosen to focus on that which others ignore; at the heart of this release there’s a sparkling clarity of purpose to behold. You can keep your regimented lives and predictable outcomes, this world is dull and welcomes such mediocrity… almost all of it, that is. Except for the twilight.
Amotken – Salvo El Crepusculo
Xtraplex Records, xpl028
Digital 2016
Santa Sangre 