Dryft
The process by which musicians name their projects can sometimes seem as arbitrary as how cars are assigned license plates. With Mike Cadoo’s Dryft project, however, the name fits all too well. If pressed, one could describe it as an eternal side-project—continually adrift on the periphery of a musician known as much for his eclecticism as for his prolific output.
Dryft began in 2000 while Cadoo was still active in the IDM/industrial outfit Gridlock. Conceived as an outlet to pursue drum-n-bass, the resulting album Cell drew inspiration from artists such as Dillinja and Photek, filtering those influences through the melancholy and introspection of IDM. The result was a frantic yet bittersweet counterpoint to the overly aggressive and emotionally vacant strain of drum-n-bass that dominated the late ’90s.
Two years later, as Gridlock continued to evolve, Dryft resurfaced with the Mytotyc Exyt EP. While certain drum-n-bass hallmarks remained, this release shifted focus toward “click-hop”—a hybrid of hip-hop and glitch pioneered by artists like Funkstörung, Prefuse 73, and Techno Animal. Where Cell emphasized velocity, Mytotyc Exyt leaned into gnarled stutter, ripped-up rap fragments, and collisions lurking around every corner.
Advance eight years to 2010. Following Gridlock’s 2005 dissolution, Cadoo’s primary focus had become Bitcrush, a shoegaze-inflected post-rock project with few ties to the electronic crunch of his earlier work. When Dryft returned with Ventricle, it again deviated from the prevailing project—but this time, the resemblance to Cadoo’s past was unmistakable. More than a flirtation with fringe genres, Ventricle felt like a partial reckoning.
Like a message in a bottle, it was as if ideas left unresolved during Gridlock had been stored away and finally washed ashore. While Cadoo readily acknowledged the stylistic parallels, he cautioned against direct comparisons, framing Ventricle as a convergence rather than a continuation.
After another four-year hiatus, Dryft returned with The Blur Vent. Beginning where Ventricle left off, the album quickly veered into new territory—drawing from drag, future garage, witch house, drone, and even R&B. Each influence was subjected to Cadoo’s familiar process of erosion and reassembly, ultimately aligning with a clearer sense of what Dryft had become by 2014.
Following The Blur Vent, Cadoo began work on a new Dryft album tentatively titled e00. After completing eight tracks over several years, he ultimately scrapped the project, redirecting his focus toward what would become From Stasis. Released in 2021, the album marked a deliberate return to Dryft’s electronic foundations: off-world synths, rusted 12-bit drum patterns, and Cadoo’s characteristically grazing, lumbering sense of motion. It functioned as a back-to-basics reexamination of the project two decades on—less a reset than a clearing of space.
Now, with Particle, Dryft reaches its twenty-sixth year not by looking backward, but by narrowing its focus. Written during downtime from Cadoo’s role as frontman of post-punk duo Vague Lanes, Particle is his fifth full-length release under the Dryft name and the most distilled expression of the project to date. Building on the fractured electronics and muted melodic language of From Stasis, the album presents a sharper, more immediate set of compositions—less concerned with accumulation than with intention.
Long recognized for beat structures that feel perpetually unstable—rhythms that strain, erode, and reassemble in real time—Cadoo approached Particle with a renewed interest in allowing these systems to resolve. Patterns are given room to complete themselves. Melodic elements, once content to hover at the periphery, now play a more direct role, actively shaping momentum rather than merely coloring it.
Emphasizing clarity over density and tactility over abstraction, Particle favors forward motion and restraint, revealing a confidence earned through decades of experimentation. Rather than functioning as a summary or retrospective, the album reads as a calibration: a project long defined by drift briefly aligning its coordinates. If Dryft has always existed as an open system—responsive, restless, and unconcerned with fixed identity—Particle stands as its clearest signal yet, informed by history but unburdened by it.
Dryft began in 2000 while Cadoo was still active in the IDM/industrial outfit Gridlock. Conceived as an outlet to pursue drum-n-bass, the resulting album Cell drew inspiration from artists such as Dillinja and Photek, filtering those influences through the melancholy and introspection of IDM. The result was a frantic yet bittersweet counterpoint to the overly aggressive and emotionally vacant strain of drum-n-bass that dominated the late ’90s.
Two years later, as Gridlock continued to evolve, Dryft resurfaced with the Mytotyc Exyt EP. While certain drum-n-bass hallmarks remained, this release shifted focus toward “click-hop”—a hybrid of hip-hop and glitch pioneered by artists like Funkstörung, Prefuse 73, and Techno Animal. Where Cell emphasized velocity, Mytotyc Exyt leaned into gnarled stutter, ripped-up rap fragments, and collisions lurking around every corner.
Advance eight years to 2010. Following Gridlock’s 2005 dissolution, Cadoo’s primary focus had become Bitcrush, a shoegaze-inflected post-rock project with few ties to the electronic crunch of his earlier work. When Dryft returned with Ventricle, it again deviated from the prevailing project—but this time, the resemblance to Cadoo’s past was unmistakable. More than a flirtation with fringe genres, Ventricle felt like a partial reckoning.
Like a message in a bottle, it was as if ideas left unresolved during Gridlock had been stored away and finally washed ashore. While Cadoo readily acknowledged the stylistic parallels, he cautioned against direct comparisons, framing Ventricle as a convergence rather than a continuation.
After another four-year hiatus, Dryft returned with The Blur Vent. Beginning where Ventricle left off, the album quickly veered into new territory—drawing from drag, future garage, witch house, drone, and even R&B. Each influence was subjected to Cadoo’s familiar process of erosion and reassembly, ultimately aligning with a clearer sense of what Dryft had become by 2014.
Following The Blur Vent, Cadoo began work on a new Dryft album tentatively titled e00. After completing eight tracks over several years, he ultimately scrapped the project, redirecting his focus toward what would become From Stasis. Released in 2021, the album marked a deliberate return to Dryft’s electronic foundations: off-world synths, rusted 12-bit drum patterns, and Cadoo’s characteristically grazing, lumbering sense of motion. It functioned as a back-to-basics reexamination of the project two decades on—less a reset than a clearing of space.
Now, with Particle, Dryft reaches its twenty-sixth year not by looking backward, but by narrowing its focus. Written during downtime from Cadoo’s role as frontman of post-punk duo Vague Lanes, Particle is his fifth full-length release under the Dryft name and the most distilled expression of the project to date. Building on the fractured electronics and muted melodic language of From Stasis, the album presents a sharper, more immediate set of compositions—less concerned with accumulation than with intention.
Long recognized for beat structures that feel perpetually unstable—rhythms that strain, erode, and reassemble in real time—Cadoo approached Particle with a renewed interest in allowing these systems to resolve. Patterns are given room to complete themselves. Melodic elements, once content to hover at the periphery, now play a more direct role, actively shaping momentum rather than merely coloring it.
Emphasizing clarity over density and tactility over abstraction, Particle favors forward motion and restraint, revealing a confidence earned through decades of experimentation. Rather than functioning as a summary or retrospective, the album reads as a calibration: a project long defined by drift briefly aligning its coordinates. If Dryft has always existed as an open system—responsive, restless, and unconcerned with fixed identity—Particle stands as its clearest signal yet, informed by history but unburdened by it.