- It still feels natural to mention drum & bass when speaking of Ena. But like his collaborator Felix K, he's more or less left it behind. Over time, Ena's productions have relied less and less on drums, concentrating instead on texture and space. Structures stretch out horizontally, offering few sign posts to guide you. What you get instead is sustained focus on subtleties. Most of the sounds seem to have experienced some sort of trauma. You're positioned with a commanding view of the landscape, but it's a bleak and isolated place. Divided: Body seems to exist in a space without human feeling, but this absence becomes a source of strength and beauty.
The tracks are spartan, consisting of just a handful of elements. They develop with an inverted logic, simultaneously decaying and blooming, going nowhere but expanding. On "11th Divided," sludgy feedback plods forward as mangled guitar sizzles. Equally remorseless, "12th Divided" echoes Kluster in its motorik chug, single-mindedly ruminating over an abused guitar line. The B-side is less skeletal and more deliberate, but the crackling textures and trudging rhythms remain. "13th Divided" is generous enough to offer the semblance of a kick and a hi-hat, but it's only to hold together a stuttering framework of sounds. Horror comes to the fore in "14th Divided," but it's also the only track with a momentary glimmer of light—a pitched synth tone. Still, it becomes dissonant and malignant within ten seconds. The whole EP has the immediacy of improvisation and the warm claustrophobia of tape. It's an oppressive but awesome listen.
Tracklist01. 11th Divided
02. 12th Divided
03. 13th Divided
04. 14th Divided