*This premiere is part of Inverted Audio x Opal Tapes partnership, offering a limited run of exclusive merchandise available to pre-order from Everpress.
Based out of Newcastle upon Tyne, Opal Tapes‘ dark and brooding sound is bolstered by a new cassette from Marseille-based producer Abbrumer entitled ‘Encina‘.
Fully sunk in a stoned mindscape, Abbrumer’s lo-fi structures drift over the mind like a greyscale fug, a fazed frontal lobotomy that aids with the day-to-day tedium. In that, it is not dissimilar to ‘RIP‘-era Actress — white-noise laden, rife with stumbling grooves, the pitched-down reality you enter within ‘Encina‘ is somehow both a warm hug and a leaden ball chained to your ankle, pulling you deeper under.
‘Trève‘, listing across detuned synth palettes, contains all the energy of a face pulled into a grim frown on a bright winter’s day. The track shifts steadily into an IDM groove, truncated, stuttering staccato cutting through the lazy drift. Restraint is perhaps the weapon wielded most readily here: gasps of resonance pull the track up to the border of acid glitch before giving up entirely to let the blurry percussion section do all the legwork for a change. Lackadaisical dream-weaving, an ear-worm that comforts and discomforts in the same moment.
‘Encina’ is scheduled for release 5 March via Opal Tapes. Order a copy from Bandcamp.
TRACKLIST
1. Blanche
2. Melancholia
3. Poly-Tango
4. Trève
5. Melge
6. Alma
7. Nebuls
8. Genèse