DJRUM

DjRUM brengt met Under Tangled Silence een absoluut meesterwerk uit. Het album opent met kalme pianomuziek en prachtige viool en zet je in een heerlijke meditatieve trans. Maar laat je niet misleiden door deze serene start: dit album beweegt werkelijk alle kanten op. Zo op het eerste nummer al: van minimalistische piano naar subtiele jazzdrums, die vervolgens overgaan in een soort jungle-beats. Felix Manuel, de man achter DjRUM, groeide als kind op met piano en harp en werd zelf bestempeld als child prodigy. Die achtergrond hoor je zeker terug op het album, maar het is juist de combinatie van zijn klassieke virtuositeit met zijn gevoel voor elektronische productie die dit album zo bijzonder maakt. Het album bestaat uit losse nummers, maar metamorfoseert gaandeweg en verandert daarbij telkens van vorm en stijl: van ambient naar dance-hall achtige grooves, van house tot intense breakbeats. Telkens afwisselend tussen klassieke elementen en moderne elektronica. Toch weet DjRUM dit op een manier te doen die nooit chaotisch voelt. Het is zo creatief, muzikaal en doordacht verweven dat je als luisteraar wordt meegetrokken. Soms emotioneel, soms dansbaar, maar altijd meeslepend. (Lotte Hurkens)

“We go through life. We shed our skins. We become ourselves.”

This line from Patti Smith was going round and round Felix Manuel’s head as he gradually constructed Under Tangled Silence, his first album in six years and a record of a literal creative rebirth. Felix originally began it in earnest in 2020 Covid lockdown, but a catastrophic hard-drive meltdown destroyed almost all his work and sent him close to psychic collapse himself. However, ultimately this pushed him to rebuild from scratch and in so doing to confront and reassess every part of his musical and psychological processes.

The result is utterly extraordinary. Felix was a child prodigy as an instrumentalist and his advanced musicality has always been prominent in his music, but here he has put himself front and centre as pianist, harpist and more. And this sense of exposure as a performer interweaves with an unflinching emotional openness too. Where sometimes electronic production as advanced as this can use intellect and techniques as shields from soul-baring, this is the sound of someone who can boldly say “I feel things, I cry all the time, and I'm not afraid to say it or show it in the music.”

But this doesn’t mean there’s a move away from the soundsystems and dancefloors where Felix made his name as a uniquely innovative vinyl DJ. Even just in the opening track “A Tune for Us”, minimalist piano ripples and jazz drumming flow into the breaks of vintage jungle – and as the structure of the LP unfolds, a deep ambient meditation like “Hold” can sit very naturally in between the futurist dancehall of “L’Ancienne” and the high-definition acid house mind movie of “Galaxy in Silence”. In fact, as with the hands-on musicianship, that gutsy big-speaker electronic impact is delivered with more certainty, more expertise, more personal flourishes than ever. And all of those elements are more integrated than ever too: the sound of a total musical personality emerging afresh is truly something to behold. An already remarkable talent has been refreshed, reborn and is making the music of his life.

A1. A Tune For Us
A2. Waxcap
A3. Unweaving

B1. L'Ancienne
B2. Hold
B3. Galaxy In Silence
B4. Reprise

C1. Three Foxes Chasing Each Other
C2. Let Me

D1. Out Of Dust
D2. Sycamore