Coming correct with a more rugged sound is Yan Cook’s latest offering in Delsin’s Inertia series with his “Liminal Space” EP.
Yan Cook has been known for quite some time as a synthesist who starts his stripped-down tracks with the synths forward and prominently in the mix. As he’s stated, he often will do a day full of experimentation on one synth and then bring those ideas forward into a track the next day. On this offering, we have something different. Instead of long soothing glides, the synths are well woven into the groove and augment the flow of the beat in a supremely satisfying way.
Right off the bat, we have the title track, “Liminal Space,” that features this idea heavily—where the low mid synth is filtered and turned around the kick in a half helix spiraling down the track while dub hits offset the kick. Similarly, “Ancient Dance” also turns the synths with creative panning in the stereo field, and all the parts are beautifully placed where they can move and react as if dancing. “Caustics” also plays with this idea where, if you can imagine the beat is streaming towards your face, these ovoid and irregularly shaped synths come at you forward and backward around behind the beat with their tails still trailing at their last position and fading away.
The track “Cipher” still features a great deal of beat and synth groove interaction, but instead of artfully playing around the kick, the synths trudge right through it with such subtle and well-timed side chain that the drone creates a very subtle and strong groove. Next to this, his rhythm synths set in triplets or dotted notes to create a very funky interaction. But when the synth stabs come in and contrast the claps, there’s nothing left to do other than put on the bass face and raise a fist. This is that kind of beat that’s just so sick, it’s terminally ill.
All these ideas are a real flex for Yan Cook, who inarguably has talent for days, but in many ways, he’s showing us with this EP that he’s a true master of synthesizer and beat interaction within the stereo field.
Possibly it was Vangelis, who may have shown the world initially what a synthesizer can do in a stereo field with the intro to “Spiral”. In many ways, getting the proper elements together so that they play with depth panning, phasing, and delay, like “Spiral” is something of a major achievement for a synthesist. Creating rings, or sweeps that weave within the beat is a challenging feat for many, but Yan Cook has mastered the art.
Most producers are content to lay down a groovy synth line, pop in a dissonant stab, or play with chords, for lack of anything better to do. Yan Cook instead creates kinetic sonic sculptures in 3D space. While someone is struggling with ADSR and having difficulty thinking about what they want to assign to an LFO, Yan Cook has lovingly bathed a kick in a warm glowing synth with a subtle reverb drop shadow. In addition to all this, the artist at most only uses 8-10 tracks at any given time, but his elements are so well thought out, that they are conceptually rich enough to fill every space in the mix.
Every Yan Cook and Delsin selected work in the Inertia series is an affirmation, and each year from 2017 onward in the series has been a revelation. However, this latest “Liminal Space” release shows a man who’s miles ahead of anyone else out there making Techno or anyone who wishes to make creatively compelling music as a whole.
What’s even better, Yan Cook is far from done with these explorations, and it feels like there’s no limit to how far he can go.
-Sean Ocean
Check out Dirty Epic music recommendations here.
Listen to our podcasts here.
Find out more about our Events here.
Listen to our review picks here.
