Donnacha Costello
Before We Say Goodbye
Released by Poker Flat
Though current hard drives never fill, RAM upgrades are unlimited and software allows myriad ideas a quick birth, many of the notorious IDM and table-core beat-smiths of the last fifteen years (i.e. Aphex Twin, kid606, Squarepusher, Caribou) abandoned the course of “faster, fresher, unique” to look back on the scores of styles only touched upon even by their own creators. This just in: Creativity Trumps Technology!
Getting the itch around 2005, former Forcelab and Mille Plateaux darling Donnacha Costello switched gears, casting off his glitch (i.e. Together is the New Alone), to develop music based on a limited palette of pads, synthetic strings, steady rhythms and otherwise warmth associated with Progressive House. As per the genre, Costello guides each pulse-driven track with a “greater emphasis on emotion before structural considerations” (Wikipedia’s definition, so please don’t spam, correct, flame or sue me). In other words, he isn’t as concerned with the 32 bar DJ intro or the build of filtering acid as crafting his mood – a supple one better paired with Sunday morning Scrabble than Saturday night debauchery (though the stomping “Roll It Out” is suitable for post-brunch bocce).

























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