Review Summary: Twenty Two expands as it perfects itself
As you might have seen and heard, Romania's Hexalyne has been keeping the realm of abstract IDM alive and popping in 2024 with his album, Scilloscenports, my album of the year (at present). But there's another sound sculpturer-- a labelmate of Hexalyne's, actually-- that deserves similar attention and recognition from avid IDM fans of the Confield-variety. You see, Mr. Vaag is back with yet another full-length album for 2024; and as much as I enjoyed his first one from back in spring of this year, Perfect Imperfection, the new and bustling Twenty Two eclipses it in each and every way, really cementing Vaag as an artist every IDM fan needs to listen to and follow.
Indeed, Twenty Two is that good.
Now, I'll be the first to admit that 2000s' Autechre music isn't for everyone, even for a lot of genuine, time-tested IDM fans. Likewise, in relation to that prior duo's experimental era -- post-LP5, let's say -- Vaag can be quite challenging to listen to and absorb; and in addition, much like his co-label artist Hexalyne, his music takes a lot of listens and patience to really enjoy. At first, I found Twenty Two to sound a bit "random" and "all over the place"-- abstract IDM tends to be that way, by definition, after all. But bit by bit, the scattered pieces of Twenty Two began to meld and gel together beautifully. This music is just as rewarding as Hexalyne's Scilloscenports, in my opinion; but, however, this album goes about hitting your pleasure-inducing serotonin and dopamine brain chemicals in a bit of a different way.
Take for instance "2021", a beast of a track and among Twenty Two's finest. Random sympth textures collide with Auteche-like frozen sound backdrops; there's not much rhyme or reason to it, it seems -- at first. But then everything fuses together in an instant, as if by powerful magnetic attraction. Then, Vaag hits the gas pedal as it all coalesces together, and the song moves propulsively forward, much more purposefully than before even. Though it sounds silly to say concerning experimental IDM, "epic" is the apt descriptor for this song here. "2021" is one masterpiece of a track that any of Vaag's contemporaries should be jealous of, just sublime all around.
"2021" was really the song that told me Vaag wasn't just releasing random bleeps and bloops with Twenty Two. Naturally from there, my focus then set on the other songs of similar strength: "Snow In August", being the first and foremost one; it's perhaps even the most beautiful IDM song I've listened to since Exm's "Meltt". Nostalgic piano chords soundtrack Vaag's reverberating electronic ice sculptures, varied and nuanced, which all come together beautifully as the song progresses. "Straite", another highlight, brings to mind what a collaboration between Boards of Canada and Autechre might sound like: The abstract melody behind the song is immediately nostalgic and reminiscent of one's early youth, while Vaag then distorts time and space in the front-row seats of this poignant time capsule, the randomness of the electronic shards slowly piecing itself together, bit by bit over its length.
Twenty Two is all random electronics, and there's no point to it all -- which is a criticism of the album I can understand, albeit a wrong one. But for those IDM listeners that like to be challenged and are interested in listening to the new crop of artists that Autechre has inspired -- well, the decent ones, at least -- Vaag is one such master craftsman that's easily on the same playing field as Romania's Hexalyne and exm's Jeroen Bax. Twenty Two is a lengthy, meaty album that proudly showcases that IDM, as a music genre, is not dead at all, and that it can still innovate and impress. Let the album tickle your brain neurons and excite your ears over time, as it has done mine. Patience here is rewarded.
