Roll the Dice – In Dust

This Stockholm-based analogue synth duo, comprised of Malcolm Pardon and Fever Ray's Peder Mannerfelt, use their second LP to explore the same kinds of unashamedly proggy arpeggiated soundscapes that Tangerine Dream journeyed through back in the 70s. As with contemporaries like Emeralds and Oneohtrix Point Never, this is music informed by a fascination with the ways in which the alien, otherwordly qualities of that period are warped and amplified by our temporal perspective.

Unlike those peers, however, Roll the Dice are less interested in re-imagining synth-prog through a prism of abstract noise. In Dust instead faithfully replicates the uncluttered rhythms of kosmiche, creating a sense of soundtrack-style narrative and thematic development. As a return to the fundamentals of 70s synthscapes, this approach has an austere authenticity. Yet it can't be denied that the efforts of Roll the Dice's brethren to engage in a genuinely reciprocal way with the tradition are bearing more interesting results.