- Anstascia D'Elene and Vivie-Ann Bakos's two EPs for Kompakt to date have dolloped psychedelic textures onto Cologne-style beats. In making Wunderkammer, the London-based pair have headed further down that road by decamping to the Mayan-built city of Tulum, in Mexico. There they set up a small temporary studio and headed out to capture field recordings of "chanting street merchants, roaring dirt bikes and whispering ancient ruins."
I was sadly unable to identify which of the tracks feature whispering ancient ruins, but the overall results are impressive and hugely atmospheric nonetheless. Both the title track and "Birds Eat Birds" surge forward with the same wind-tunnel momentum as "No Place Like Gnome" on their last release, 2013's Inward Visions. The former's chimes and gentle clangs confer a light Middle Eastern feel that wouldn't be out of place on a Ten Walls track, while the latter adds distorted voices and effects and subtle arps to a bed of steady percussion. "Stolen Romance" is a slower-paced, tropical-feeling closer, with haunting voices and trickling wisps of guitar washing over woozy drums to gorgeous effect.
TracklistA1 Wunderkammer
B1 Birds Eat Birds
B2 Stolen Romance feat. Audysea