Kangding Ray is one of the best artists currently producing electronic music. Yes, usual Redshift disclaimers apply – we contain multitudes, we embrace expressivism, and so forth. But David Letellier’s outputs never cease to impress. If asked to change someone’s mind about electronic music – one of those “all techno sounds like kitchen instruments falling to the floor” types – I’d reach for Sage Aqua before they could groan Spacey Jane.

Letellier, who originally moved to Berlin to round off his architecture studies, uses space on the Polar EP masterfully. It is therefore fitting that this release bears the Dozzy- and Neel-certified Spazio Disponibile imprint. The EP opens with expansive, polyrhythmically lush sound design on ‘Four Intertwined Spirals’. It feels infinitely deep, and gradually the bassline fills this space. It isn’t techno of the rave-ready, ‘mental’ variety like Hollow (released as a single just one week prior to Polar) or Helios Rave Draft. Rather, it holds us in that rare plane of experimental dance music that is at once dynamic and introspective.

The titular ‘Polar’ remains more faithful to a four-to-the-floor bassline, which anchors the track amidst the constellation of bleeps and pads. To borrow a term from systems thinking, it feels complicated. Despite the bass’ predictability, the other elements evolve and morph around it; the end product is therefore unfamiliar. Sandwiching ‘Polar’ are the psychedelic ‘Asymmetric Lifeform’ and ‘Solid State Rain’. Much like the Ultrachroma album, they are beautiful. Deep percussive elements make for an angular, ambient experience.

This EP contains multitudes; I find it uniformly brilliant.

★★★★

Joe Negrine

26 May 2024

n.b. Joe’s rating system has been amended to a four-star metric.