Micah – Swell Review

Artist : Micah

Title: Swell

Label : Nexus Soundscapes

Release : 14th february 2014

Genre : Electronica/Chill Out

Review by Simon Huxtable

Hailing from Canada, Micah Lukasewich is an incredibly talented underground producer. He makes the kind of progressive I can buy blind because I have complete trust in his ability to make forward thinking, future proof music.  No stranger to production, Micah has around 70 releases from 2003 to today which range from brutal bass heavy behemoths to delightful progressive trance. Micah embodies everything a good producer should be and this his debut album, rather than just containing a series of his best tracks over the years, is all new material. The results are cinematic and otherworldly.

From the opening tracks’ fractured and deftly manipulated astronaut radio messages through the delightful vocals and broken beats, Micah brings us a wonderfully rich audio tapestry. Opting to swerve the usual four to the floor tracks and concentrate his efforts on creating delicate soundscapes and organic masterpieces has been invigorating and inspiring for this artist and is a testament to his incredible talents and open minded approach to sound design. Each track has been crafted from a place of love with delicate details in the percussion and synth arrangements. Its a staggeringly good album that similarly to Sasha’s 2002 Airdrawndagger shows that dance music producers can equally make music for home listening as well as for the club.

The album starts dramatically with the shoe gazing delight of ‘Borthers’ featuring that twisted radio message I spoke of earlier and its touches like this that hook the listener and prepare them for what is to become an involving and mind expanding listening experience. I think its fair to say Micah is a music fan of old, as there are influences throughout from bands like M83 and Massive Attack, which give the tracks a life of their own but cement them in context with known elements. The majority of the album is instrumental, however stand out tracks for this reviewer featured the delicate, wistful vocals of Katty Heath (The Herb Birds and Spotlight Kid) on Sunrise and Get to You. I also rather enjoyed ‘An 80s Freeze’ with its blustering soundscapes of emotion. Although I have highlighted these as stand outs, its a difficult choice because each track is made with such attention and care, that they will be just as listenable in years to come.

To summarise, I would call this album post club wind down soundtrack, which sounds better with every listen!

8/10

Tracks

1. Brothers

2. Sunrise

3. Water on Earth

4. Beam of Light

5. Adrift

6. Disguisted as Thieves

7. Time Strike

8. Dr Sceince

9. Dark Sesame Street

10. It’s Like You’re Watching

11. This Man Lived a Good Life

12. Vainglorian

13. A New Morning

14. An 80’s Freeze

15. Get to You

by Simon

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