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MH-251 Loden - Valeen Hope  Valeen Hope, Loden’s first full-length release, is a collection of singularly beautiful shoegaze inspired electronic work. Across twelve compositions, rays of early ‘90s pop melody shimmer through layers of deconstructed beats and oceans of ambient synth noise. Valeen Hope’s majestic sheaths of sound have drawn comparisons to contemporary artists like M83 and Air, and even the mighty My Bloody Valentine, making it feel strangely familiar yet completely fresh. Written as he was traveling between Holland and his native Belgium, Loden deals in emotions often suppressed in beat-driven music; digital sounds are skillfully manipulated to convey feelings of longing or discovery. Valeen Hope is a stunningly mature album from a talented young producer. |
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| Reviews Summary |
| It hisses and crackles with a singular, burning instensity - The Wire / Mush has just unleashed a one-man production machine - XLR8R / There are plenty of highlights on this excellent debut album - Holland Rocks / Will call the listener back again and again – Igloo |
| Reviews | |
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| The usual sort of cut-and-paste electronic stuff I hear from Mush. The usual high quality, as well. Loden actually focuses on fairly conventional song construction, and the result is something like Air on steroids.Air with serious beatwork, too, I suppose. But Loden does traffic in that sound of the ether on its melodic side. There's an awful lot going on in the rhythm section (whether "real" or assembled), though, and that takes these songs to a different corner of the universe.I kept hearing distinct stories in these songs, which is what you might expect from folks who adhere fairly closely to regular songwriting conventions. Don't expect lyrics, of course (though there are voices here and there), but let the music, um, do the talking.Insistent and elegiac at the same time. That's a bitch of a combination, but it works quite well here. An album that works for both the amygdala and the frontal lobes. - Aiding & Abetting |
