BnB Review: The Field - Looping State Of Mind (Kompakt)
Written by Youri Jozee
Ambient/Techno - On his third album, The Swedish ambient techno producer further explores the boundaries of minimal techno and dense synth layers...
Following his acclaimed debut LP From Here We Go Sublime and 2009s Yesterday & Today, the Swedish producer’s third album has become another display of the man’s heavily layered shoegaze-tinged house and techno. In ways, Looping State Of Mind bears similarities to The Field’s previous albums while at the same time stepping away from the producer’s early, more techno-orientated grooves. Across seven tracks, The Field lays down a sound that can roughly be described as a mixture between the lush electronica of artists such as Nathan Fake, Mount Kimbie and Ulrich Schnauss, with often minimally structured rhythm patterns merely serving as supporting instrumentals.
It’s all about thick, layered melodies here, and it immediately becomes noticeable from the very first track: Is This Power merges a variety of trance strings, warm bass and a soft nu-disco groove into a very indie-sounding compositions. It’s Up There clearly aims for the feet, although its looped synthesizer waves do make this a perfect track for Sunday chill sessions too. One of the best tracks on this album is Arpeggiated Love, a relatively uptempo track that slowly transforms into a very colorful palette of stunning synthesizers, lengthy pads and entrancing rhythms. Very trippy, yet very laidback and marked by exquisite production techniques. Our other pick would be the melancholic Then It’s White, a beautiful ensemble of piano keys, vocal snippets and a very mellow rhythm with Massive Attack-styled fx around its middle part.
Our verdict:
On Looping State Of Mind, The Field further explores his signature sound and serves up seven very well produced tracks for both the feet and mind. A beautiful piece of work to kick back and relax to.
Rating: 8.2/10
Label: Kompakt
Release date: October 10th, 2011 (digital version available now)
Tracklisting:
1. Is This Power
2. It’s Up There
3. Burned Out
4. Arpeggiated Love
5. Looping State Of Mind
6. Then It’s White
7. Sweet Slow Baby
