- Italian label Gang Of Ducks may have slowed their output in the last year, but they're still a potent source of electronica that sounds like it manifested from someone's half-remembered nightmares. Naples producer Dave Saved gave Gang Of Ducks one of its best releases in 2014, and now he returns with its follow-up. If Power And Silence: Deindustrialization excavated dance music's darkest corners, then Energydream explores its ethereal side. For this EP, Davide Salvati took samples from blissful vocal house tracks, stretched them out and spread them into a bleary, translucent smear.
The result is prettier but less engaging than Power And Silence. A few of these tracks sound like worn out tapes from the '90s: "Let It Evolve" features unintelligible, warbly vocals, while "Clubdrome" has the lush fuzz of early trance. Both of them are slowed to extremes, with only a breaks-driven passage on "Clubdrome" giving it any shape. Opener "Time Of No Future" is a typically amorphous effort, but the layered, pitch-bent vocals make it one of Salvati's best moments, however brief.
Shapelessness gets the better of Salvati on "Ultimo" and "After/Life," which end the EP with a deflating assortment of chipmunk vocals, listless drums and growling basslines. Thankfully, the title track balances things out. With glow-in-the-dark synths, a slightly foreboding bassline and distorted vocals, it's like Araabmuzik's trance reveries on a bad trip: cheesy, self-aware and enthralling all at once. Moments like those make Energydream worthwhile.
TracklistA1 Time Of No Future
A2 Energydream
A3 Let It Evolve
B1 Clubdrome
B2 Ultimo (Fracturing Believe)
B3 After/Life (A New Radiant World)