»Chronology Brought« by Pocka

<b>Connecting dots & dashes.</b>

In his debut release, new artist Pocka has done something really nice here – he’s created an EP peppered with abstract bits but accented with all kinds of outright melody. The result, Chronology Brought, is something maybe reminiscent of .Tape. or Hans Appelqvist but takes familiar cues from IDM for rhythm and sound placement.

Things get started with the massive, noisy three minute tsunami “Like Water In Water” – and there couldn’t be a more surprising yet appropriate track to introduce the beautiful colors and shapes that form the rest of the EP. What you get after this storm burns off is “Star On My Arm”, a calm microsound sort of poem with neat percussion and a melody tinged with harmonic distortion. “Daniel Bradley”, a short idea about looped guitar fragments and a cymbal, is one of my favorite tracks from this release. An IDM throwback with its tight geometric rhythm and a cool inverted bass melody, “Me Make Pretty Again” features subtle voice cut-ups and a strange flanged scraping sound.

Which brings us to one of the finer tracks on the release, “Lauren’s Face Pressed Against A Xerox Machine”. Lots of little synth and percussion molecules bouncing around loosely-strummed guitar parts, and it feels a little lonely. But when I listen to this song there isn’t anything wrong in the world.

Free music just keeps getting better. Long live netlabels and artists like Pocka who help them evolve.