deep glens - carver

deep glens first came to my attention last summer when he opened for Autechre in St. Louis. I found his IDM rooted in a lot of the custom software Max/MSP methods as Autechre to be appealing enough where I purchased his 2022 LP earn grips at the show and enjoyed it several more times over the fall and winter.

earn grips is a slice of minimal IDM focused around novel layering of disparate loops. the sequel, carver, shows Bullion mastering tape manipulation techniques to further push his ideas into richer and more complex territory.

While his debut LP was texturally fascinating, with strong compositional interplay, there was not a lot in the way of forward melody, it was more a series of moods. carver is more synth oriented and its melodies are tuneful and beautiful. "music camp with the kid from montecello" sounds like the outside of a dance club at 2 a.m. "coin machine"'s twinkling melody reminded me of the glorious synths of early Autechre.

"guire sleepover" might be my favorite composition of deep glens. there are three interlocking parts that stumble over each other over rich pad sweeps, like an Orbital song trying and failing to be born. the gentle synth massage "fisher fading" is proof that Bullion has a lot to say outside glitchy rhythm pieces.

I wonder whether the move to more physical forms of composition with tape caused Bullion to be more selective or mindful of the loops he uses but whatever it is, carver is the step forward you'd hope to see out of a promising young artist.