Late last year, we announced that Dimlite would release a new EP entitled My Human Wears Acedia Shreds. We now have a bit more information – courtesy of our friend Alex Robinson over at One-Handed Music. Yet, somehow, we still don’t know what the hell an “acedia shred” is…. Read on:
If Dimlite’s recent Prismic Tops EP served as a stunning reintroduction to one of electronic music’s most underrated talents, then My Human Wears Acedia Shreds is a warning to listeners and peers alike: keep up or be left behind. This quartet of songs finds the Swiss producer creating wide-eyed and progressive music that synthesises free jazz, prog- and kraut-rock, and much more. There is no one else quite on his level, no one who inhabits a world so complete and unique.
While he built his reputation with a string of pioneering releases on Germany’s Sonar Kollectiv label that took hip-hop as their starting point, these days Dimlite is more Soft Machine than drum machine, a kindred spirit of current purveyors of avant-pop and the playful prog giants of the past. This quartet of songs contains a richness that makes these his most satisfying compositions yet. Just check Metal Snake Rider, an expansive opus packed into just over three minutes of non-stop invention.
At times it’s even pretty, though Dimlite seems uneasy about the beauty he creates, never allowing anything too perfect to take shape before clipping its wings or trampling it back into the dirt. It’s this tension in his music that makes it so captivating: a constant tussle of wills between the dreamer and the cynic, the traveller and the trapped. Just check Loins, in which long-time collaborator Misel Quitno’s drums thump out a brutish ode to Can while Dimlite’s celebratory harmonies are taunted by the anxious squall that lurks beneath. Though ask its creator and he’ll tell you simply, “it’s about loins and using them properly”.
By the time you have adjusted to the dream-world of My Human Wears Acedia Shreds Dimlite will pull the plug, dropping you back into your monochromatic doldrums. It’s OK though. As you unravel the secret code in EP closer Gone-O-Tron, you’ll know it’s not forever.
