CD, Ant-Zen, 2009
www.ant-zen.com
Mika Goedrijk is better known as the man behind projects such as This Morn’ Omina, Pow[d]er Pussy and Project Arctic. Whilst spending time considering the motivation behind a director’s inclination to reject certain scenes or elements of filming in defining the final cut of their work, Goedrijk decided to revisit some of his own discarded ideas and sounds as the basis of new material. As this work is unlike the music he creates under any of his other projects he chose to release it under his own name and call it “Pellicules”, a word meaning ‘film’ or ‘skin’ indicating the removal of layers of sound in the recording process, in this case discarding them only to revive them later for this project.
Mixing precise beat work and bassy tones with edgy ambience, Goedrijk creates a meticulously crafted album of precision electronics. The whole thing is crystal clear, clean and accurate as though he has a very clear vision of what he wants to create and accurately reproduces it for us all to share in the experience. Everything about it is ultra-modern, right down to the computerised rhythms of “Zerotiefe” or “Strain”, the latter being combined with slowly creeping ethereal ambience. “Pellicules” is far from being clinical or synthetic however, every track has a degree of feeling and passion about it that builds and expands as it progresses. Album opener “Tempest” combines clean jabbing beats with atmospheric sounds and slightly melancholic drifting ambience to set the scene for the further development of this sound later in the album. “Undulate” has a real sense of presence and a steady air of unease about it that is almost cinematic in design. Taking things in a slightly different direction is “Locusts”, which steps up the pace to frantic levels with deep, distorted bass and huge stabbing beats. Toning down the beats slightly to head in a more IDM direction, but retaining crashing beats and a sense of futuristic edginess, is “White Spiders”, while the electro-clockwork beats of “Grey Hours” slowly gather pace backed with atmospheric ambience. “Butterfly’s Call (End Off)” is a progression from “Grey Hours” in that it retains some of the same qualities, but fuses them with the precise electronics found elsewhere to produce a more driving and powerful result with a definite futuristic quality. For the final track, “The Sound and the Fury”, Goedrijk rounds off the album by unleashing a burst of energetic beats, bass and danced-up industrial/IDM electronics.
Although it is probably closer to electronica than the output Goedrijk is known for, “Pellicules” is so beautifully conceived and executed with such precision that it draws the attention. Deceptively addictive, this album really is a cohesive exploration of a concept that couldn’t be further from the collection of discarded ideas or sounds it was conceived from.
[8/10]
— Paul Lloyd