Rescued from crisis, Djrum's third album Under Tangled Silence is a potent document of rebirth and adaptability. Five years in the making, the album has undertaken many forms, lost in a harddrive meltdown and found again as Felix Manuel recreated and then completely reshaped his sound. Though originating from 2020 lockdown sessions, truthfully its journey begins with Manuel's 2013 debut Seven Lies, which teased out the gooier, molten edges of house and UK bass. 2018's Portrait With Firewood marked a clear progression, infused with piano led ambience colouring fierce club rhythms, that Under Tangled Silence now completes at the zenith of Djrum's discography.
Sounds and styles are more interconnected, maximalist, and intricate than ever before, as Manuel does away with any conventional approach to bring seemingly disparate practices into a cathartic unison. His childhood piano playing flutters on wings of sweeping strings in the opening ‘A Tune For Us’, delivering captivating and complex melodies that match the pitter patter of rain underneath. Eventually, they are joined by his other virtuosic practices as a DJ and producer, as whispering beats emerge, driven by carefully orchestrated resonating bass frequencies, crisp and juicy percussive details, and the characteristic vocal cuts of the Amen break springing up from the rain haze.
As delicates washes of cymbals and elasticated two step adjacent rhythms forge onward, Under Tangled Silence reveals the classical and club elements not as opposing sides, but a deeply intermeshed whole, always keeping us on our toes with its manifold textural segues and rhythmic upheavals. Blossoming ballet like piano pointes are paired with ripping, roaring, drilling noise, as Manuel unveils a timbrally vast array of pitch shifting drums and slamming deconstructed beats. Grinning kalimba plucks accelerate into technoid delight, basking in tender swathes of strings before hurtling into a raving ruckus.
Under Tangled Silence goes to great lengths to showcase the joy and emotionality of sonic experimentation after Djrum's lengthy but rewarding process to make it.
