SubtractiveLAD Life At The End Of The World CATMD173

In the beginning, it was impossible to predict subtractiveLAD's musical evolution. It was as if his first album 'Giving Up The Ghost' was the initial splash from a pebble thrown into a pond and each subsequent album a ripple which grew broader in scope, became less disruptive and more meditative. They have all had one key aspect in that Stephen Hummel, the man who records as subtractiveLAD, has always been genuine in the projection of emotions in his music. He does record for the ever emotionally driven n5MD imprint after all. On "Life At the End of the World," Hummel's 6th album, percussive elements, pretense of genre, and theoretical pollutants that could cloud the candid nature of this current ripple in Hummel's pond are a thing of the past. The result is one of subtractiveLad's most lush yet thread bare albums to date. Eno could be referenced, although Hummel now prefers the guitar as his main instrument. Further, "Life At the End of the World" is not all ambient movements and variations on a theme. At the three quarters point the album takes a tense turn with passages that would not be out of place on albums from Ben Frost or Jasper Tx. One wonders what is really at the end of Hummel's world? "Life at the end of the world" is Hummel's catharsis, anxiety, and joy. We can hear that he is at a crossroads in his life and subsequently has created his largest most majestic ripple in the pond yet. [ learn more about SubtractiveLAD]

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Still maintaining his album a year record with Life at the End of the World, his latest release for n5MD, Stephen Hummel continues develop and refine his musical sensibilities as subtractiveLAD. Like Jase Rex (Another Electronic Musician), Hummel is an n5MD veteran consistently releasing an album a year. With each release he also refines his sound further, something those of us who have followed him since his n5MD debut in 2005 will already be cognisant of.

Hummel’s music has always been very personal and expressive but Life at the End of the World and its predecessor Where the Land Meets the Sky take a step closer towards intense ambient soundcapes by incorporating drones, piano and guitar melodies and layers of slowly shifting sound to further enhance the emotional experience he aims to portray. Where the Land Meets the Sky went a step further still by including a bonus disc containing an entire ambient album with the limited edition release; Life at the End of the World continues his exploration of sound.

Hummel allows his music to unravel, to tell its story and find its own way. Always heavy with deep emotive qualities, each track flows, undulates and drifts along with steady ease, textures and layers slowly interacting, coming in and out of the sound space, changing the mood as the emphasis shifts. Album opener "Beginning Again," for example, is initially dark and melancholic yet by its close it has introduced an acoustic guitar that brightens the tone and introduces an air of optimism. This ability to subtly switch the emphasis and mood of a track is something that Hummel is very good at, making the transition gradually and gently in keeping with the expressive nature of the music he creates. Based mostly around layered droning texture and electric guitar tones, on tracks such as "Summer in Your Mouth" and "Always Ending" he incorporates lighter piano or guitar melodies to offer a sense of optimistic hope and positivity. Occasionally the pace is more urgent and the guitar heavier, louder and more aggressive as if depicting brief spells of anger or frustration such as "Once the Stars Have Been Washed from the Sky." However, even at its most melancholic and introspective, Life at the End of the World has an undeniable sense of b textura

So what's life like at the end of the world for Stephen Hummel? On the evidence of his sixth subtractiveLAD album, it's apparently no cataclysmic melt-down but rather an oasis of celestial calm. Though Hummel cites the guitar as his main instrument, the album's lush material often sounds more keyboard-heavy, or maybe it's simply that the guitar's natural sounds are camouflaged, transmuted into immense washes and cloud formations by Hummel using various effects and devices. Don't get the wrong idea: guitar textures and patterns are present but they're merely part of the total sonic mix. Regardless, the hour-long collection of beatless meditative material is often beautiful and that it's easy on the ears isn't an unwelcome thing.

While Eno would be an obvious reference, a track such as “Summer In Your Mouth,” with its rapturous swell of stately piano melodies and hazy tones positions the album squarely in Eluvium territory. No doubt Matthew Cooper also would be glad to claim the gloriously hymnal and supplicating qualities of “The Deep and Lovely Quiet” as his own. The blend of ambient washes and crystalline guitar shadings in “Ne Plus Ultra,” on the other hand, draws a connecting line between subtractiveLAD's Life At The End Of The World and Robin Guthrie's recent instrumental outings. But lest anyone get too comfortable basking in the ambient glow of “Beginning Again” and the seven stately minutes of grandiose synthesizer counterpoint that makes up “With Eternal Lids Apart,” be aware that Hummel hasn't entirely foregone his penchant for guitar dramatics: five-and-a-half minutes into “Once The Stars Have Been Washed From The Sky,” Hummel straps on his axe to spread molten chords over the track's synthetic material, pretty much burying them in the process. The guitar sounds bleed on into “Life At The End Of The World” (in fact extend from start to finish) before morphing into delicate picking for the ten-minute exuent “Always Ending.” The fuller embrace of a more ambient style won't come as a total surprise to long-time subtractiveLAD devotees, given that the bonus disc in his 2009 Where the Land Meets the Sky set presented three long-form ambient works, making it a natural segue-way to the new release.

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