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Reviews

Drifting in Silence — Desire
(Labile Records LAB 12, 2014, CD)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2014-12-24

Desire Cover art

I feel like I am becoming a curmudgeon. This is the third review in a row where I am being negative. Derrick Stembridge aka Drifting in Silence has been involved in music for a number of years. I reviewed his fifth release Facewithin several years ago in Issue #39. Facewithin did not appeal to me and I find his new release Desire even less appealing. My main problem is Derrick’s overindulgence of groove beats and electronic percussion that overpowers his underlying music. It is almost as if he feels that his music cannot support itself without the percussion. If you listen very carefully, underneath the annoying percussive beats there are hints of Klaus Schulze and Jean Michel Jarre. However, I think that I may understand some of the music. “Parallel” is a rhythmic piece with a slow undercurrent of electronics that comes to the forefront after about a minute, and then it alternates with the percussion to form two parallel musical lines. “Lie” is powered by electronic bubbles and squeaks and very close to what you might hear at a rave. The mind-numbing beat is key, but you keep looking for it to develop into something, but the computer says “No.” So this must be the lie. There are only two places on the disc that are oases: “Undercurrent” and the closing track, “Echo,” with their complete lack of percussion. Here Derrick is finally able to fully develop his electronic music with these two wonderful ambient tracks. Bottom line here is, if you liked Facewithin or his other releases, you will probably like Desire.

Filed under: New releases, 2014 releases

Related artist(s): Drifting in Silence

 

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