Julien Skrobek has released a lot of music over the past couple of years, some of it on CDr but mostly as free downloads at one site or another. Julien is an uncompromising guy, but also one of the nicest and most supportive people out there. His comments on music at various places online tend to ruffle a few feathers but he is the first to admit that spending too much time entrenched in these pointless arguments keeps him from doing what he does best, which is make music. His latest album entitled (curiously) I.G.I.N. can be downloaded for free from another promising new net label called Ecto. I.G.I.N. is made up of five tracks, each made up of treated samples and digitally created sounds collaged together with a good helping of silence. There is quite a range of sounds going on here, from the odd spoken moment to a fair amount of squiggly digital synth sounds. Skrobek is very good at using extreme dynamics in his music to create surprise, suspense or just to provoke his listener into wondering what is going on, but I.G.I.N. is probably his most lyrical, fluid work to date. The sounds used still tend to come and go suddenly but they all work together well, creating something surprisingly musical. The final piece, weighing in at just three and a half minutes involves a cinematic looping drone sitting in the background as cyclical digital squelches turn like evolving clockwork in the foreground. I’m stuck trying to think of what this last piece, and the album in general reminds me of, but its not Julien Skrobek that springs to mind. It’s a free download so go listen for yourself. I’m not sure if I like it or not yet, but as is usually the case with Julien it made me stop and open my ears. Richard Pinnell - www.thewatchfulear.com Richard Pinnel's thoughts on I.G.I.N. joseghast 2009-03-05 14:45:51 2009-03-05 14:45:51 0 1 0