Dryft - The Blur Vent

Last July, California-based IDM/Experimental label n5MD released the latest and highly anticipated installment of Dryft's newest album entitled 'The Blur Vent'. The album comes in a four-sided, cardboard sleeve and is comprised of ten tracks which can be best described as, essentially, Drag/Witch House music combined with elements of Shoegaze and Noise music. The physical copy of the album contains an unlisted song entitled "Like Falling", which is also included for free in the mp3 download, if you order directly through n5mailorder.com. This mp3 download combines Tracks 6 and 7 of the album, and lists it as "The Long Four (Extended)".

Dryft is the solo side-project of a very talented electronic musician and music producer, Mike Cadoo. He is best known for his contributions to the groundbreaking and (unfortunately) disbanded Post-Industrial band Gridlock, which combined elements of Industrial, Ambient and IDM music back in the late 90's (something that was never done before at that time, and something that will never be re-created); and for his current project, Bitcrush, which started life as a Post-Industrial/IDM project and later evolved into more of a Post-Rock/Shoegaze outfit. He is also the founder of the n5MD label, which releases music by well-known IDM and Glitch artists such as Proem, Quench, Keef Baker, and subtractiveLAD. Therefore, when you order directly from the label, you're getting a package that is assembled by Mike Cadoo himself. Dryft has appeared on a number of compilations, and most of them feature exclusive tracks that can't be found anywhere else.

Dryft began in 2000 as a way for Mike to sonically explore and experiment with genres of electronic music that didn't exactly fit within the confines of Gridlock's sound. When Dryft's first album 'Cell' was released, it featured more of a Drum and Bass aspect, however it still contained a lot of the Noise, Ambient and IDM elements that were found in Gridlock's music. Just as Gridlock's sound drastically evolved over the years, so has Dryft's. With the release of the Glitchy and Trip-Hop influenced EP 'The Mytotyc Exyt' in 2002, and after an eight year hiatus before releasing 'Ventricle' in 2010, Mike Cadoo has shown us that this project couldn't be more appropriately named. There is no doubt that Mike Cadoo is a master of many genres of electronic music, having shown his ability to seamlessly blend multiple genres of music to create something new and exciting with each anticipated release. While fans may point out some similarities between his three best-known music projects, they can't deny the fact that his sound is ever-evolving, is always one step ahead of the rest, and is a major contribution to an underground music scene that has somewhat been lacking in quality releases over the years.

Witch/Drag House is a genre of music that combines elements of Hip-Hop, Noise, Drone and Shoegaze music. It's been around for few years now, has slowly been creeping into the Post-Industrial scene, and is starting to gain a bit more respect as better quality artists such as AAIMON, White Ring and SALEM have released cross-over albums that feature a more Post-Industrial and Noise sound rather than Shoegaze and Drone. It's only fitting that Dryft would take on this direction, as all of Mike's various projects have all featured these genres of music. 'The Blur Vent' brings us the ambient soundscapes, densely reverberated synths, and distorted vocals of Witch House while providing us with creative guitar effects and the "wall of sound" effect found in Noise and Shoegaze music. Dryft has appeared to leave behind some of it's IDM and Glitch influences with this latest release to create the perfect storm of sound and sentiment. Mike Cadoo has the ability to build songs to highly climatic orchestrations that show a massive amount of emotion. Within this album you will experience desire, despair and ecstasy. This is a groundbreaking album in the sense that it's paving the way for a new era of the Post-Industrial scene and should be regarded as one of the best releases of 2014.

I've been trying to get through this review without displaying how much of a rabid Gridlock fan I am. I am however, also a rabid fan of Mike Cadoo's music. While fans know there will never be another Gridlock album, as it's something that is beyond Mike's control, I feel that, deep within his side-project's music, Mike gives us a little bit of Gridlock's charm in the background with each release. And that keeps us coming back for more. I don't know if he'd ever admit to it, as he tags his Dryft tracks on Soundcloud as 'not-gridlock', but I'd like to state that, on behalf of your fans, Mike, we all appreciate everything you do. Please don't ever stop making music. Your music means so much to so many people. We can't wait to hear what you have in store for the future. Dec 02 2014