Kel’s self-titled album starts with “horizontal drop”. It begins with a fade in of a choir synth with some flubbing in the background, which makes way for some scattershot beats, which are soon joined by a pluck synth with a filter being modulated on it. Some low square waves are used in a percussive manner to create a bass sound. The beats fade out, leaving the plucking, as well as a clicking sound. The beats return and as before there is a filter being modulated which alters its timbre greatly. Some electronic noise fades in in the background, and turns into squelching. The sound stops.
In “it’s a numbers game (message repeat)” a staticy telephone message repeats different numbers, which are soon accompanied by some odd, distorted, digital-sounding bass, and eventually a pluck-synth with a delay effect on it. After a while, a different delayed synth comes in, until it stops to give way to another sample of a telephone message. Some bass drums on a delay play softly, and then the last-mentioned pluck-synth comes back, playing over the message. The instruments go out, one by one, leaving the message, which has the last word.
The track “kall to answer” begins with a little metallic percussion, plucked bass, and vocalizations over the music. Soon, this is accompanied by an insistent beat, which plays for a while. The beat stops, and plucked bass play loudly. Soon, the beats return, with treated vocalizations playing not-quite-along with them. This goes on for a while, until the song fades out with the beats silenced.
Next, “vibrasonik” begins with pulse waves playing with a delay effect on them which make the melodies harmonize with themselves in the way that really obvious delay tends to do. The melody is repetitive, but does develop. The melody fades out with a high tone echoing out.
The track “off kilter” starts with beats that are indeed off kilter, and also rather complex, interspersed with pluck-bass. There is a lot of ring modulation going on with the beats, as they play in an odd time signature. At the end, they suddenly stop.
The next track, “robot harmonika”, starts with a ring-modulated melody mixed with synth lasers and occasionally some percussive noises. A synthesizer plays non-tonal tones briefly, then the song ends.
This is followed by “gorse yellow”, which has a synthesizer melody put through a wealth of different effects which transform it into something quite difficult to describe, all while some percussion plays. The percussion eventually halts and does a rapid fire beat for a second, then goes back to its usual mode. The tones that are played by the synths are not melodic in the Western sense but are “tonal” noise, in that they are a succession of noises that have a discernible frequency. They cut out with a long delay effect, fading out.
In “khorus”, clean synths play together while treated vocals of what sound like children shouting together play, and a quick drum beat joins them. The beats become a series of taps, then go back to the quick drum beat. The beats become sparse once, then return, then become a series of taps again, then stop, ending the song.
The next track, “life cykel”, begins with a distorted, organ-like synth, which plays as a swinging beat comes in and develops. The repeating melody of the organ-like synth develops a little bit, then quite a bit toward the end of the track, reaching a crescendo, then returning to form, and the track ends.
The next song is “keep one ear open”, which begins with an odd time signature, semi-plucked synth playing a scale in an almost random sounding fashion. There are tones interspersed which become more intentionally-melodic-sounding as time goes on. For a while the plucked part plays mostly by itself, and is then accompanied by the tones again, and the two sounds interspersed with each other develop quite a bit more. The track then fades out.
In “beaches slew”, scattershot beats play to quick jazzy harp arpeggios, and some metallic sounds with delay on them. There are some voices, and the sound of some turntablism. The beats drop out, then return. Later they drop out again, except for the clap, ending the track.
The second to last track is “dark hole”, which begins with some noise that sounds like waves of water crashing onto shore, but harsher. Low bell tones play, adding to the atmosphere, then beats slowly work their way into an off-kilter drum pattern. Various synths do tone slides and weird conglomerations of non-notes play, until the end.
The final track is “trip the light” which begins with synths with effects on them that make them sound like they have a very fast delay that makes their sound more metallic. A beat comes in and develops over time. The sound, except for the beat, becomes a mix of oscillators and the distorting effect of many different effects. A melody plays in the clear, but then is swallowed by the chaos. The beat drops out mostly, and there is a chaotic mix of oscillators. The beat then fades out at the end of the album.
(https://kel-audio.bandcamp.com/album/kel, £7 GBP for digital)
