Brendan Angelides, performing under the name Eskmo, released SOL, his second studio album, Monday. Eskmo is a Los Angeles-based electronic artist, made from a certain breed of musician that grew out of the LA area. This type of musician envelopes a style based around atmosphere building, and using music to create emotions, images and ideas, rather than a simple dance beat. Flying Lotus, a fellow LA musician, released his album You’re Dead last year, and was met with high praise for his death-centric record. In a similar manner, Eskmo has whipped up a concept album of his own, which focuses on, if the album title didn’t already give it away, the Sun.
Being a mainly instrumental artist, the key to success for an album with an over-arching theme is to keep an overall consistency to your sound, which Eskmo more or less does at first. “SpVce” does well to set the tone for the album, as well as establish the setting. It starts very empty, the silence only broken by the slow synth escalation and abrupt, almost menacing orchestral interludes. After a brief silence, the background is filled with a fluttering piano scale, its constancy derives a feeling of bewilderment, as if you’re staring into an infinite sky, each gentle note representing the billions of twinkling stars scattered throughout deep space. “Combustion” follows suit in its ability to build a world, as the heavily saturated synth tones portray an excessive supplement of energy, like the rising intensity of the sun as it climbs the morning sky.
The intense imagery of the first two songs is possibly the strongest point on SOL, as the rest of the tracks aren’t as effective in displaying much thematic value. The use of field recordings adds a more natural vibe to the album, like the addition of water dripping in “Blue and Grey”. But SOL still fails to reveal any meaningful intentions behind its allusions to the Sun. Most songs feel like slow build ups that end without any payoffs. Many of the tracks become unmemorable, and blend together, forming a piece that seems to have maybe lost its initial vision along the way.
SOL manages to establish an interesting concept in its early stages, but seems to fall flat along the way. Eskmo has an interesting sound, unique from most electronic artists. In order for it to work, Eskmo needs to find consistency in his style that allows him to craft more intricate ideas that can be expressed through his similarly sophisticated sounds.
Rating: C
