Bodied

Album review

Ital Tek's excellent 2016 release, Hollowed, was much darker and less dance-influenced than anything else the Brighton-based producer had previously issued. There were still traces of the dubstep, jungle, and footwork hybrids he'd previously explored, but the album was largely free of genre tags. Emotionally, it often felt wounded and staggering -- miles away from the producer's more colorful, energetic earlier work. The 2018 follow-up, Bodied, drifts even further from the club influences of Ital Tek's past, and closer to a more cinematic sound. The album was constructed from choral arrangements and acoustic instrumentation, but strangely enough, those elements largely seem obscured or distorted. The album's title suggests more of a human presence than the producer's last outing, but if anything, it feels more supernatural. Tracks like "Become Real" and "Cipher" feature floating rhythms and jittery, softly pattering snares rather than steady, up-front beats, often expressing the sensation of a nervous heartbeat. "Lithic" is queasy and disorienting, with its accelerating kick drum and curdled bass. "Vanta" is more shadow-cloaked, and easier to follow due to its ominous, skipping beat and New Order-like guitar melody. "Hymnal" is the album's most immediately striking cut, with electrified arpeggios coated in rusty distortion and an elevated sense of panic that gradually subsides. The album ends on a more hopeful note with "The Circle Is Complete," by which point the producer seems to have transcended the feelings of fear and uncertainty expressed throughout the preceding hour. Bodied is a few tracks longer than necessary, but its best moments are bewildering, and display Ital Tek's continued evolution as a sound designer.

© Paul Simpson /TiVo