Drowned In Sound (.COM)

All of the sounds on Shoals, 12k boss Deupree’s first full-length album in three years, were created by the non-traditional playing (scraping and tapping, or using an E-bow) of traditional Javanese and Balinese gamelan instruments. The mood is reflective on opener ‘Shoals’, where long, gentle tones cruise past while incidental drips, squeaks and burbles populate the foreground. The piece develops in the final few minutes, the longer tones bending themselves into a minimalist pastoral melody. ‘Rusted Oak’ is denser, passing in and out of anxious thickets of tones. Uncertainty extends through ‘A Fading Found,’ until the strummed strings near the conclusion of ‘Falls Touching Grasses’ remind the listener of the human agency behind this disembodying journey. – Chris Power