Mark Valsecchi - Logos

ok so. i take valsecchi seriously. i do. this new one 'logos' on jannowitz isn't a departure. it's a deepening.

three tracks. that's it. 'logos' opens the record with this coiled melodic figure that's almost classical in its patience. it spends a while just turning that phrase over, letting the room fill with its shadow, before the kick arrives like a decision being made. by the time the bass settles in you're already inside it. you don't hear the drop. you realise you've been under water for three minutes.

'third dimension' is the one i keep coming back to. there's this moment around the middle where the low end just drops out entirely for a bar and a half. all you get is one filtered hat and the ghost of a pad. it's audacious. it's the kind of thing that would feel like a mistake in someone else's hands but valsecchi turns it into the centre of gravity. the whole track orbits that negative space. felt like solstice a little.

'alpha state' is the closer and it's the most club-facing of the three. rolling toms. a bassline that's pure insistence. but even here he can't help but add these tiny stabs of something else entirely, that feel like they're being played by somebody in another room who's not sure they're on the right session. they are.