Wednesday, February 13, 2013

EP REVIEW // Hypnagogia by LAKE R▲DIO

Caden is at it again. This last Friday the chicago based witch-house artist released a new EP which keeps up the relatively new tradition of giving releases technical names that start with H. Hypnagogia is his newest release and is a currently free (who knows for how long) 6-track EP on his Bandcamp page.

This newest release is almost an experimentation of new ideas especially with the last track, Bleeding Thumb.  It seems that a lot of artists are experimenting with different genres these days. Tegan And Sara put out an electropop album, The Bilinda Butchers will be doing the same soon (although not completely electropop), and now LAKE R▲DIO. Now, don't let that confuse you, there isn't a single electropop song in Hypnogogia if that's what you were thinking. In fact for the most part, this EP is a pretty standard LR release, so fear not old fans.

The strongest track on here has to be the heavily layered and warped track Please, but the majority of Hypnogogia is good. Along with that, other good songs are the opening track Ghost Translator, and the re-release of Community College after it's first appearance in last year's anthology, Hypoxia. Overall I would say I enjoyed listening to this EP but, there are a couple songs I could never really get into like YR LOVE, and Opal Eyes. I will admit that my dislike for YR LOVE is mostly due to my dislike of the song he's sampling in it but as for Opal Eyes, there just wasn't really anything that caught my attention. I felt the beginning dragged on for a bit too long but after that first minute and 30 seconds the song gets a lot better.

Lastly, the final track off this EP is an interesting one. Bleeding Thumb is the least electronic of all the songs and features a new sound from Caden. This song while a nice and relaxing break from the normal music released by LAKE R▲DIO feels incomplete, or if not "incomplete" then at least interrupted due to it's abrupt end at 1:41. This song could and would be a lot better with just a simple adjustment of when the song ends. All things considered Hypnogogia is yet another great release from LAKE R▲DIO. What do you think?

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