Ancient Language - Totem

Detroit-based trip-hop/ambient house producer Chris Jarvis, a.k.a. Ancient Language started streaming his latest single, "Totem," this week via Soundcloud. Listeners can pick up a new record by Ancient Language (on 7" vinyl from New Fortune Records), later on in May.

https://soundcloud.com/ancientlanguage/totem

Celestial synths sigh their way into the track, like a meditative exercise before the danceable beat kicks in... Not that this is any raging rave of a track; it feels more like a montage, or a poem that shifts into several stanzas (only, as an instrumental composition, its Jarvis wending and weaving of wintry-tones and and a cascade of spaced-out warbles and chimes from seraphic synths that sing for him). 

The mid-tempo beat, bolstered by an arched-shouldered, fuzzed-out bass, keeps something more akin to a pulse rather than an overt instigation to dance, its more a cerebral stride, a walk to nowhere or to anywhere under an uncannily luminescent night-sky... But the track continues to build, introducing three more looping synth arrangements onto the soundscape somehow finding a way to suture each added element into a new and balanced harmony every eighth measure, or so... 

The swell of tones and graceful dance of dueling melodies evokes that certain transcendence inherent to techno - that moment where it nearly overwhelms the ears and the beat takes you over and your only recourse is to close your eyes and let the music take your mind where it will... No, I'm not on drugs as I write this - I'm only listening to "Totem..."

More info: https://soundcloud.com/ancientlanguage/totem