Dial 81 is staying busy this autumn. After the experimental composer of ambient techno and progressive hip-hop scored evocative instrumental pieces for this summer’s vivid Detropia documentary (pieces he’s proven able to perform live, recently), he then released a single with his more pop-leaning side project: Dark Wave. Now, with Luminous Stasis, Dial 81 (aka emcee-producer Blair French) goes back to his roots: spacey-sublime dreamscapes dazzlingly haunted with echoed, reverb-drenched samples, sprinkling chilly synth rattles atop low booming bass fuzz, and wafting in eerie organ sighs down upon steady swaying beats. Detached, drifting, out-there-sounds orbit free of muddier organic acoustics; French demonstrates his keen knack for synthetic elegance. This is music to muse to in the wee hours of the morning, music that lets only a little light in, sparse and sporadic synth-centric collages, but just percussive enough not to lull. —Jeff Milo
This article appears in Nov 14-20, 2012.
