Winter is coming – or rather, it’s here already – and as such now is the perfect time to dig yourself in between the walls of your headphones with the deep hibernal sounds of the ‘Cut EP’, the result of a collaboration between AES DANA and MIKTEK, two artist of the French ambient label Ultimae. With an average length of around seven minutes per song, this three-track EP is certainly sufficient in terms of quantity.
‘Evenfall’ is the icebreaker of the three and establishes the style and atmosphere right away: these are soundscapes of short days and long nights, chill winds, and slow melodies that sweep sunlight under the mat. The track comes close to some of Trentemöller’s introspective songs, also as far as percussive style is concerned. It is not a song that’s strongly present, but it doesnt have to be: it offers plenty of space for you to disappear into.
‘6am’, the second song, probably points to the end of long night, rather than being a marker of a new dawn, for the memories of a journey to the end of that night seem very much present in the gloomy mood of the song. The start of the track reminds one of Moby’s ‘The Rain Falls and the Sky Shudders’, but ‘6am’ flows thicker, it is more layered, and a bit sadder as well – in a good way.
Title song ‘Cut’ features a melody line that seems to reproach you something; the search for what that is is exactly one of the things that makes the listening experience so interesting. The music briefly crumbles to a void around three-fourths into the song, but out of an icy wind a melody line comes to the fore once again, with sliding samples left and right, and here and there a musical subcurrent as a cold shiver crawling past your spine.
Some lesser points are that the songs seem to move explicitly in the background – you have to look for them without necessarily feeling invited – and that in terms of atmosphere they are very closely related, which makes it difficult initially to distinguish them from one another. Ultimately though, the attention of detail AES DANA and MIKTEK have put into the ‘Cut EP’ is commendable, and lifts this mini-album past the confines of a simple soundscape.
This EP is the first of three; if the quality of the ‘Cut EP’ is anything to go by, the three together might turn out to be an ideal winter album. Colder than you’d first expect, and warmer than you dared hope.

To be clear: this is a hard record, and far from flat. The little birdies on Mr. Oizo’s fifth album The Church are large bony vultures that dance in angular patterns around raven cadavers. The solemnity of your average church is not to be seen – unless the churches you visit on average are neon versions of the-Sagrada-Familia-goes-Spongebob.  The music itself? Ehm. Neo-retro-house with a wicked-up structure, a touch of Amon Tobin’s ‘ISAM’, or even Detroit house in the way that the city sadly often looks like nowadays in our collective imagination?
Yes, this album sure wants to do something. And it’s got its own voice, which is always a plus. To begin with the hyperfrenetic beatfest ‘Bear Biscuit’ was a good choice, as you immediately know the direction the album will go. Yet, you won’t always go along. ‘Ham’, for example, has some great ideas, but it never really unfolds, and paradoxically enough you’re still somewhat hungry after a copiously pounding meal.
Maybe the problem is that many of the songs sound excellent when they start, yet not enough is done with them. ‘Mass Doom’, ‘iSoap’ or title song ‘The Church’, for example, all sound refreshingly retro, and then it seems as if there was no more inspiration left to do something else with them. This creates a bizarre mix of an album that’s at the same time very modern and unique, while at the same time being too repetitive.
This doesn’t mean the album doesn’t have its highlights. The aforementioned ‘Ham’ is certainly worth a listen (or a dance), despite my earlier reserves. ‘Torero’ is powerful, and must have crashed its way through your speakers at least once this winter – the Pac-Man-like melody is definitely a great bonus. ‘Dry Run feat. Bart B More’ is a nicely confining sound box that plays well with rhythms and samples.
You’ll have a head-banging time with this powerfully bouncing Church. There’s a lot of fun to be had when you let Birdman take you along for the ride. Too bad there’s not enough residu left after it’s gone: by giving the songs so many muscles and busyness they’re very present, but they miss some interesting complexities to remain present even in their absence. Best to give it a listen before you buy.

On listening to opening track ‘Boxoff’ you immediately think, yes, I’ve fallen halfway into Amon Tobin’s ‘Mission’. Not an unpleasant start, but then it comes: the song opens up and unfolds like reversed origami, with drums rattling like night rain on the roof of a small car with a large glass window.
You quickly realize that this is an album of contrasts, of twisted chiaroscuro, a connection between dark unearthly rumblings with bright white overtones. These are contrasts every good city has, and this Vapor City is no different in that regard.
This isn’t an album that wants to be this or that – it attempts to be nothing but itself. With a pinch of XXYYXX in ‘Hard 2 Be’ or ‘B Patient’, and some hints of Goldie-like jungle (‘More Than Friends’), but with most of all an impressive idiosyncrasy, so does ‘Vapor City Archives’ keep on unfolding like first track ‘Boxoff’ does.
It’s an album that finds a perfectly peculiar balance, and is refreshing and new. The first aspect makes sure the tracks stay with you; the second aspect ensures you’ll never truly appropriate them, so that you can keep on discovering them.
Oh, and ‘Endless <3’, the song by which the album ends (though you could say it makes the album never end at all). One could write entire paragraphs about how strong and serene this subtle lingering of a song is, a ‘Solar Sailor’ by Daft Punk yet also different, light and melancholic at the same time, like drifting down underwater accompanied by a voice that is a vague echo through mist. This song alone could earn the album its merits.
The archives of Vapor City could be an ideal destination for your next citytrip. There’s only one way to know.