- Berlin's Matthias Frick may have launched his Sieren project in 2013, but it wasn't until 2016's Static Polymorphism EP that people really took notice. If that record revealed his love of dubstep—and Burial—served with ambient and a chilly techno twist, his following album, Transients Of Light, attempted a softer melodic touch. His new EP, Ascension, is a progression from those releases.
"Slinger" is the EP's hardest stepper. A dubstep track that takes a lesson from electro, it employs a subtle bass wobble and the occasional foghorn bass blast. "Tailored Mistakes" also has a touch of sub-bass. Along with 'U8," it feels like a sci-fi epic. That said, Berlin's most hipster U-Bahn line, the artery running from Neukölln through Kreuzberg to Wedding, has never given me that impression. "Lost You," a collaboration with Akkord's Synkro, is afterhours downtempo that winds you down before the title track's ambient bliss. Ascension is tasteful and well done, but it's also predictable. It aims for emotional impact, though I wasn't left feeling much of anything.
Tracklist01. Tailored Mistakes
02. Slinger
03. U8
04. Lost You
05. Ascension