Lacunae - "Collapse" (on igloomag.com)

Normally, this reviewer is unmoved by the spoken-word-over-idm genre, finding that the two principal elements never match up evenly. Either the spoken word material is glitched out to the point of incomprehensibility, or the music simply overpowers the words. For reference points of both extremes, see Laub's Filesharing and Vladislav Delay's project The Dolls. Lacunae unfortunately are also unable to find the balance, perhaps due to their unconventional and gimmicky work ethic. The members of Lacunae have never meet in person. Tracks originate with Kasten Searles, who creates basic vocals and ambience, then sends the tapes to Arson Bright, who creates arrangements for Kasten's tracks. From there, the tapes are sent to A. Paluso, who tweaks and mixes the recordings into a cohesive whole.
Such is the process which produced Collapse, their second full-length effort. Overall the electronics are somewhat muted, trip-hoppy in places, evoking the lazy and hazy atmospherics of Massive Attack on "Rebuild in Black," crashed into the twitchy skittering beats of Arovane or Funkstörung. "Eight Zero One," placed firmly in the middle of the album, is the stand-out track. A Gary Numan-esque synth bass pulses underneath simple Adult. beats and grooves so effortlessly that the rest of the album can only be a letdown. Which unfortunately it is.

If Collapse is anything, it is too long, even at 43 minutes. There's too much filler, such as the 53-second long tracks "Giving Up," "Arms of an Ideal," and "An Image of Itself." Even the opener, "Your Surface" wallows in unintelligible vocals and sub-Richard James textures. While generally well produced and sonically interesting, the tracks do very little to differentiate themselves and as a result become more than a little numbing. Kasten's vocals rarely graduate from whispering or speaking into singing. The music never transcends its influences. The band never rise to their potential. While not a great album, there are moments of greatness on Collapse, such as the aforementioned "Eight Zero One" or in the gentle reverbed piano on "From Dust." There are not enough moments like that to really recommend this album. Maybe next time.