Daniel Sandoval aka glacierr is a solo project from Los Angeles who recently released a self-titled three song-demo entitled glacierr. The songs on this releases are more or less loops and any changes are subtle in which you have to pay attention to the music.
The title track is the highlight of the batch. It starts with a single note synth and kick drum that sounds slightly off sync. What sounds like snare rolls start to emerge. The song continues to get layers and eventually has an industrial type of feel to the music and it starts to solidify. To say it's hypnotic is an understatement. I couldn't concentrate on much else besides the single note synth until pads started to come into the mix. There are some shifts in outer layers to the music but the beat doesn't flinch. “Ghost Ship” is where the beat, melody and elements are so steady I consider this more of an ambient song. The pads that are introduced do very little besides adding subtle texture. My concentration was draw to the main melody. “Ptq” is the most avante garde piece which is more or less variations on a single idea. There is a lot of white noise and high frequencies that overtake the metallic percussive elements. I was thrown off by how lo-fi these recordings were for whatever reason. This style in particular thrives in the opposite of conditions. If this music isn’t treated properly in the studio it misses the point. The intrigue of what Sandoval is doing is in the details and is usually best experienced with a great pair of headphones. If there's one thing I think Sandoval should focus on is the clarity, separation and overall mixing, balancing and presentation of sounds. For reference I think comparing his mixes to artists like Holden, Gas, Fennesz, Sepalcure and other like minded artist might be beneficial. Musically, I think there were some solid ideas and execution. Hypnotic loops certainly serve a artistic purpose and mindset. I do love listening to Selected Ambient Works Volume II which like glacierr builds off a singular idea with minor deviation. On that note I would be interested to hear if he could pack more ideas into the songs and take the songs to places I wasn't expecting it to go. Overall, I liked what I heard. There is some obvious talent as a producer and I think with some tweaking Sandoval could take it to the next level. I’m looking forward to hearing his future work.
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