- Fred Warmsley has made some scary music since changing his name from Lee Bannon to Dedekind Cut last year. First there was Thot Enhancer, with its tense ambient stretches and spastic blast beats, then R&D, a collaboration with Rabit that Holly Dicker called "a nightmarish, high-speed mash-up of seemingly whatever the pair could lay their hands on." On his new tape, American Zen, Warmsley explores subtler moods. Rather than paranoia and rage, these four ambient tracks spring from something more ambivalent.
A quick-footed arpeggio forms the backbone of "American Zen 1&2," the EP's most charismatic offering. It loops underneath sentimental piano strokes and celestial strings that shift almost imperceptibly. The soft-focus track is like Detroit house taken to its most ethereal, stripping away the drums and slowing the pace to a glacial crawl. "Caution" is less distinctive, with its unfussy flourishes of synth suspended in reverb, making it more of a mood piece than a strong statement. "Déjà Vu, In Reverse" is the only cut with a kick drum, and it sounds an awful lot like Burial, from the metal clicks to the rainy sounds and the overblown Reese bass. The beat vanishes after only a few minutes, however, leaving the track to spiral into six minutes of chilling cinematic sound design.
Closer "So Far.. So Good" lightens the mood with a whiff of psychedelia. It almost has a new age feel, with a woodwind loop and sparkling synths, though that's tempered by sparks of dissonance. A voice speaks softly through the membrane of pink noise and electrical textures, offering some kind of direction on repeat ("And then continue on across the…"). Much like the rest of American Zen, we never find out what it's trying to tell us.
Tracklist01. American Zen 1&2
02. Caution
03. Déjà Vu, In Reverse
04. So Far.. So Good