se-delan-drifter

Se Delan: Drifter

Se Delan are back, and they waste no time in announcing themselves.
Se Delan
Drifter
Kscope
2016-04-29

The second album from duo Se Delan sounds like it should, by all rights, be the work of more than just two people. On most tracks, the sheer wall of sound pumped out is enough to draw you in. At times, however, there’s a clear lack of balance between the instruments in this “wall”, if you will. There are, however, notable moments of sonic density that would hold their own with even some of the more respected shoegaze artists of the ’90s.

What this album lacks, however, is imagination. Yes, there are clear efforts at experimenation with different sounds and textures, but the experimentation occurs within a small niche. Usually, it’s just delicate, meandering vocals pitted against brooding guitar work of varying levels of distortion. That works to a point, but Se Delan can’t really claim to have done anything other than work out a specific formula and run with it.

The repetition doesn’t do them any favours; efforts at being dramatic come off as nauseating repetition of what we’ve already heard, and we’re more than able to see past the slight variations on their style that they do attempt to broach. For example, we may feel that “Blueprint” may be a departure from their shoegaze style, but really, it’s just the same thing with a more insistent drum beat. It leaves you thinking that Drifter would have been better of as an EP, where their lack of noticeable stylistic variation may not have been as much of an issue.

RATING 4 / 10