Vladislav Delay - Tummaa

Vladislav Delay, aka Sasu Ripatti, writes the type of music that causes parents to wail “but it's just random noise!”, while persevering connoisseurs defensively declare it too refined for their meagre MOR-fat brains to understand (often while secretly pondering the same). It’s quintessential IDM in other words – closer in sound to recent Autechre than the genre’s more melodic proponents. And like all good ‘Intelligent Dance Music’, it’s completely and utterly at odds with such an illogical and smug label: even if Delay is Mensa-smart, ten minute tracks and minimal instrumentation evidence obtuseness, not intellect, while the ‘D’ only applies if your preferred dancing environment is strapped into a flotation tank menaced by subconscious horrors. But these are the faults of whichever pseudo-intelligentsia coined the IDM term, not Delay’s. Tummaa is awkward, unsettling and, at times, patience-testing.  But it’s also enchanting, rewarding and well worth your time.