Review: Sunken Foal – Le Doux Nord (Part I)

Words: Dan Frye (Autolysis Records)
Le Doux Nord (Part I) is loaded with warm sequencing glitchiness where common rhythmic patterns come in rare fragments where one tries so hard to hold onto them as they slowly disintegrate away into digital fractals. Fleeting, is the word that comes to mind, sort of like one of those weird dreams where you feel you kind of have control but the strange and tiny nuances somehow affect how your dream pans out only to analyze what you could have done differently after you’ve woken up with no other way to correct what you could have done.
The album opens up with the track titled “Down In Your Guts,” which is a complex myriad of patterns weaving seamlessly through one another. The occasional fast-paced kick drum appears every now and then only to slow down, putting you in a spacey dream-like state only to get pulled out once again.

Track 2, titled “Dawn Swamp Stagger,” goes on with a little more room to spare. The airy synthesis takes you on a gentle ride to what may be the answer to all of life’s complicated questions and problems only to give you an answer that you didn’t want to hear. I particularly really enjoy this track.
The best way that I can describe this album is by saying that this album is like a beautiful work of art protected by a glitchy firewall that only allows you to catch tiny glimpses of its beauty to be admired and cherished once you have an opportunity to do so, to then get shrouded into chaos as you attempt to digest what is being displayed at that moment. To me, for some reason, this feels like a very complex and delicate album.
And yes, I’ve listened to this album through like 5 times.