Sanctums - Truth Lifting Up Its Head Against Scandals

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  • You may have thought that Pantha Du Prince had the final say on the use of chimes in techno, but consider the majesty of Sanctums' "Truth Lifting Up Its Head Against Scandals." Here, chimes explode in a quiet storm of delicate plink and plonk, tracing out a melody that's a touch whimsical but with a dead serious face on. There's a quiet grandeur in the way the slow anticlimax unfolds after five tracks of careful meditation. Sanctums is the collaborative project from Calgary artists Dan Solo and Evangelos Typist, and it occupies a space somewhere between the lines of techno, ambient and downtempo. It's ambient music that makes percussion its primary concern, paying special attention to the noises that the drums left behind. Scandals is sequenced like a proper album: "Post Humous" brings things to a steady simmer with tremulous basslines and bobbing drums, while "Descendants" introduces the chimes that become the EP's signature. The patterns begin to skip like slo-mo garage, and by the time we get to "Body Fossil," sighing pads and icy breezes have been added to the palette. "Charm School" and "Living Tribunal" offer the most limber-limbed moments, the latter ebbing and flowing with a precision that recalls Trent Reznor's best instrumental work. By the time the masterful closer rolls around, they'll have you deeply immersed in their world. You'll be glad you stuck around.
  • Tracklist
      01. Posthumous 02. Descendants 03. Body Fossil 04. Charm School 05. Living Tribunal 06. Truth Lifting Up Its Head Against Scandals
RA