seven

"an hour brighter" is a follow-up to a vinyl on u-cover's sublabel inc.us, and a continuation of the themes outlined on earlier mp3-only releases. it only took a right mindset and appropriate weather to understand what this album is all about. with music like this the environment for me often means a lot - the influence is mutual - it allows you to hear the music, tune in, and at the same time the music itself slowly creates the appropriate mood. this album finally "clicked" one early murky morning in late august; it became a perfect soundtrack for the quiet, chilly day with empty streets, devoid of any movement, as if paused in that perfect moment between the seasons - this is when ten and tracer's simplicity in choosing melodies and rhythms, lack of any dazzling gimmicks, its overall quiet ambience at last fell in place.

there is a constant presence of extended melodic waves throughout each song, reminding you of similar flow of boards of canada, but this time it is colder, cooler, never achieving rampant melancholy or often overdone warmth of boc. yet another ever-present property is continuous percussion, with steady heavy rhythmic feel, without any of the fuzziness or crackling, splintery feel so common in this genre. combined with elegant melodies, it might remind you of more rhythmic side of arovane.

intentional simplicity of this album becomes its strongest quality - slowly growing on its listener to the point where one becomes fully immersed in the music; ten and tracer does not overwhelm - it softly envelops you in its textures, opens up the surroundings. viewed from this perspective, "an hour brighter" becomes an album perfectly fitted for u-cover's ideology of subtle, refined electronica with a human touch.