In The Depth Of My Soul

Promo Release Date: 13/07/2012 Release Date: 27/07/2012

- When Soldiers Cry (Intro) - Sons Of Classthor - In My Place - Lonely Ways - Epic Storm - Terabyte - Rage And Hate - Canyon Sunrise - Stay With Me - Just

Rotation Deep has been a melting pot of minimal ambience for quite some time now, using the well-established platform of its parent label Rotation Recordings to showcase excitingly fresh new talent. With this in mind, up steps Minor Rain. The Slovakian has stepped out of obscurity in 2012 and effortlessly placed himself within the new-school bracket of artists that fuses a classical musical approach with a confident experimental technique. His first foray into long-player territory, In The Depth Of My Soul marries the traditional film-score electronic with a fine-tuned sound that borrows from the Autonomic, 'drum and space' sub-genre, with a few surprises in between.

Opening with the stripped-back, piano-led poignancy of When Soldiers Cry, it becomes clear that the LP will play as a narrative rather than a loose collection of tracks. Evolving out of the intro, Sons Of Classthor displays the Slovakian's adeptness with sounds of a more cinematic, orchestral tone: omnipresent piano keys punctuated by vocals ranging from choir arrangements to infantile snippets give the track an overall ecclesiastical feel. A sparse, heavily condensed drum pattern emerges similar to the Bop-categorised 'microfunk', rounding off the track on an affecting, progressive note. Minor Rain's comfort in variety becomes apparent too: In My Place's moody two-step, with its interspersed mids and omnipresent growling bassline, is one of the LP's standout 'dancefloor-orientated' tracks, loosely stated as its an altogether different breed to the typical monotony that tagline implies. Lonely Ways continues in the same vein, proving the duality within the producer's sound with a half-time piece that focuses on crisp tribal percussion and atmospheric development. Minor Rain switches the LP's tone drastically moving into its second half: Terabyte merges wobbling low-ends with a confident ticking arrangement, whilst Epic Storm's woodwind introduction gives way to a muted-reverb stepper not unlike ASC's 'Droids'; interestingly enough, In The Depth of My Soul is showing the diversity and sheer creative abundance you'd expect from a genre-defining artist such as ASC, a testament to the Slovakian's impressive and swift entrance into the 170 landscape. You'd be forgiven for thinking Minor Rain's preference lies in the uplifting minimal. Rage & Hate's killer tech workout showcases the producer's versatile capabilities with aplomb: opening with a signature film-outro, string-lead threat and vinyl crackle, the piece moves swiftly into its drop, introducing a disturbing vocoded vocal cut to an almighty percussive arrangement; its futuristic edits ebb and flow like a dystopian amen break with an exceptional attention to detail reminiscent of an early Rockwell. Carried along by its consuming bassline and enhanced by swiping mids, the track moves towards it climax with a stripped-down eeriness and impressive menace. Canyon Sunrise doesn't allow the producer to rest on his laurels either, with its twinkling guitar elements and 'heartbreak' over-riding vocal laced around its cavernous expanse. The LP ends on an optimistic note with its final pieces: Stay With Me employs sub-aquatic bleeps and flittering clicks within its GLR-esque atmospherics, whilst the collaborative effort with Keosz, Just, marries the familiar Minor Rain sound with an easy-listening, 140 structure; an enveloping effort that evades any of the negative tropes you might expect from a primarily 170-based producer experimenting with slower tempos.

Minor Rain's enigmatic approach to experimental ambience is all too refreshing in this day and age: an LP of impressive scope and personal identity that essentially becomes the producer's magnum opus in the few short years that he has been present in the scene, also becomes a pointed reminder of the amount of talent that passes through Rotation Deep's gates. Within the process of spreading his talent so thinly across many different outlets, you'd assume there would be a chink in his armour somewhere along the line, yet his impressive, uniform quality of sound remains above all one of his major strengths. With releases on a number of varied labels including BTK's Dutty Audio, it's clear that Minor Rain's assured multi-genre production is showing no signs of letting up moving toward the end of the year and beyond.

Review By Jack Smith (Urban Essence)

Rotation Deep Uk www.rotationdeep.co.uk