‘Mud Diver’ begins with the aptly titled ‘Chasing the Sun’, at first holding all the intentions of aiming for a big room anthem – introducing itself with familiar melodic pads and focused, drop friendly peaks. Anyone who knows N1L’s work though will understand that this settling for a straight forward approach is not his vibe… at drop point the anthemic nature absolutely plummets face first into the grit and accelerates away into layer upon layer of revving synth mayhem, transforming with grace into the complete polar opposite of its initial gambit.
Title track ‘Mud Diver’ takes us further down into the realms of machine trouble and its mechanised cyclical movements. Held together by the deepest of off beat kicks, we wade through this horrorscape of construction and collapse in search for light. This light comes in the form of ‘Jaget Och Maskerna’ where swathes of rapid-fire signals weave through the darkness and speed away towards the hopeful bloom, holding an escapist and otherworldly aura, a hallmark of much of N1L’s work.
Submerged for 9 minutes ‘Clockroach’ takes us deeper and deeper down into the basin, where dubwise flutters of percussion and sparks from the breaks of rolling dread bubble around the vessel. Recalling the deepest moments of Raime, the tensest moments of Kode 9, and the most desolate moments of Demdike Stare, ‘Clockroach’ best embodies N1L’s ability to respectfully reference a rich history of bass music, whilst injecting his own deeply experimental learnings and leanings at every turn.
