INDEX:Records alum vase (aka Downstairs People; games) and label-head Conna Haraway team up as ‘department’ to deliver a two-track mini-epic of sprawling brooding soundscapes and future-facing rhythms, via finely chiseled abstract outbursts and widescreen cinematic depth of field. (Additional live instrumentation comes courtesy of Glasgow-based staev, and INDEX:Rec affiliate MCRD supplies intuition suggestions.) Starting off as a proper serene slice of beatless musing, 'cogent' slowly hatches into a rhythmic shape-shifter combining the immersive power of elastic sound membranes with the incisiveness of post-industrial breaks, leaning towards IDM-oid fractals and signature UK bass menace. All in vaporous piano chords (cue: staev), heavily dubbed-out layers and FX-coated emotion, 'recovery' beckons us onto the path of soulful elation with its poignant melange of brittle stabs and skittish drum patterns gone astray. Dark and solar at once, the track blends cavernous entrancement with verbed-out RnB samples and percussive trenchant on a steely, broken techno tip. Ethereal like a mirage yet daunting as the four elements boiling up a storm, Department's debut two-tracker is an elusive piece of sewn-together sketches exuding the sheer magnitude of a master painting in sound.
