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First Listen Impression: Bola – D.E.G (2017)

I finally got a quiet hour to listen to Bola's new album, D.E.G. As usual, Bola hits a very high level of sonic quality in both engineering and composition. Listeners familiar with his other work will recognize certain techniques he uses (glitch, juxtaposed harsh and gentle textures, unusual chord structures, etc); but D.E.G is both recognizable as Bola and very fresh at the same time. (Don't miss my interview with the artist)

Three of the tracks struck me on my first trip through the album. First was "Herzzatzz", which is considerably heavier than the opener. It has a sound reminiscent of tracks from Gnayse (2004), maintaining a heavy groove with haunting melodies above.

"Pelomen Vapour 2" is also quite heavy. I think my preference for intricate and heavy compositions may be showing, but I found this one really interesting. The bassline that appears around 3:00 has a great sound to it.

As is customary for a Bola album, it finishes with a poignant and thoughtful track, "Maghellen". Shifting between major and minor chord structures, it's a shimmering and beautiful finish to the collection.

"Evensong" surprised me, as it's the first Bola track with female-sung recognizable lyrics. Often when presented with vocal tracks from artists I know well who seldom or never make them, it takes me a while to digest what's going on. So I can't really comment on it yet.

I'm sure that I will play D.E.G many more times, so I should be able to return with a full review some time in the future.

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