Oliver Schories - Exit mp3 album

4/5 starsOliver Schories' sophomore long-player is a distinct evolution from his debut. Again it has the feel of a more or less continuous mix, except that whereas his first album played out like a live set comprised of tech-house and deep-tech bangers, Exit is altogether more ambitious and coherent as a composition. Barring a few repeating samples, vocals play far less of a role in the tracks, drawing the music inward and condensing it, resulting in an altogether more pared-down, minimal mood. In fact, purely in terms of content and layers, there is less of everything. However, in this case, as Schories plays it, less becomes so much more. The space he allows into the mix, allied to what textures he does apply, provides an effect akin to a belly-dance for the ears, and equally as alluring. Space becomes bare skin, a smooth and sensual texture all by itself, contrasting the cool control of the rhythmic elements (the hips) the rolling bass (the legs) and the flowing chords (the clothed limbs). The listener inevitably grows increasingly intrigued as to when and where the nakedness will next be exposed beneath the flashing, flitting, enticing material. This is a unique achievement which not many producers can conjure, because it is the theoretical opposite approach than what is presumed necessary to engage your audience.As do all of the Minimal Techno technicians who best comprehend their art (Villalobos, Aguayo, Hawtin, Mayer, Schwarz, Ripatti), Schories is exceptionally adept in the ways he punctuates his base mood with additional synaethesia-inducing elements or interjected female vocal lines (the jewellery). He uses these enhancements to break the flow and build the tension within his world's atmospheric conditions, continually building the album's flow across its duration. He tells the story of an evening and night during which his characters enter into some form of adventure and a liaison occurs, relating these events in musical terms before the protagonists are permitted to 'Exit' their scenario the next morning and (presumably) return to their routine existence.For me, for such a young producer, Schories is someone for whom I hold an immense regard. Should he continue in a similar trajectory to that on which he is travelling now, we will all be treated in the future to some even more remarkable works, perhaps even some new ground being broken.