Wading through more bullshit than Pusha T claiming Pablo Escobar-esque parables and “beef”, while Kanye’s warbling humbleness, really, there aren’t better openings for taunting new music, much like Wen opening up his sophomore album ‘EPHEM:ERA‘ with ‘Silhouette‘, when he starts fucking around with that Alice Coltrane sample tho… urgh, it’s dutty time.
Tapping into vintage tastes further back in days when aol emails worked, but moving away from his seminal release, 2014’s Signals, and carving newer sounds with shavings of extended plays on labels like Tectonic, Keysound and most recently, now on Big Dada. ‘EPHEM:ERA‘ steps into a different landscape, and is a stellar offering, with something for many… the bass-bin bandits, techno adventurers, ambient smoozers, even the twats that sell their WHP tickets for £90 – “nah mate, it’s worth it, just get a bag a ket with it innit”.
The album conjures up some interesting moments too, ‘Diverse‘, ‘Sun Through Blinds‘ and ‘Curve_Relay‘ turn into visceral explorations. Scantily clad with minimal sound, occasional drum patterns and distorted synths, Wen manages to push the boundaries of club music and culture, while keeping the vibe of the album apiece with more intricate times and surprises, AKA the panning on one unnamed track legitimately almost made me shit myself.
Crystalline sounds spawn out from tracks like ‘Glisten‘, ‘Blips‘, ‘Schoene‘ and ‘Grit‘, all with this really intriguing sustained release kind of aesthetic to them, make no mistake, there not as flat and useless as an Uber driver without bluetooth or an aux, contrary, they add an ethereal mixture to what is a solid collection of textures being melded together, oh, Bluetooth ain’t connecting? Put the shampoo ads on the radio then cuz!
Headier moments like ‘Void‘ and ‘Time II Think‘, come honing in and bouncing out with the finishers, smashing the fuck out of everything, and what a bunch of bangers. Shawty don’t flex like dis on a badman choooooon, damn, I just came everywhere… twas the henny that got me, I swear. Wen, you’re a rinsing geezaaaaaa – shoot em up!
Anyway, Wen – EPHEM:ERA is scheduled for release 6th July 2018 via Big Dada, go grab that shit here, before we slap you faster than hands at a gabber rave.
TRACKLIST
1. SILHOUETTE
2. GLISTEN
3. TIME II THINK
4. RAIN
5. BLIPS
6. VOID
7. CURVE_RELAY
8. GRIT
9. OFF-KILTER
10. SUN THRU BLINDS
11. SCHOENE
12. DIVERSE