I know it is Friday, and with each Friday comes a bevvy of new music to absorb, but let me draw your attention to an album that actually comes out tomorrow (7/5). Though this is early, the album in question took time, more time than I would wager any of the rest of today’s releases have taken. It is also a highly unique sound that I would also wager is unlike anything else today, or really most any days. What we have for you today is the debut, full-length album from a Finnish/UK duo called An Insection. Hearing is believing, so hit play below and take in the wide vistas of To Flyover Missing.
While you’re greeted with the lush dreampop intro to “Iceflow”, let me explain the background of this record. An Insection formed in 2009, inspired by acts like My Bloody Valentine, William Basinski, and Massive Attack. While they have released some EPs since their inception, their proper full-length has been a work-in-progress for 14 years. Don’t you just love that warm, building synth intensity? Anyway, the songs on To Flyover Missing have been revised, tweaked, reworked, and recorded in that time as each musician learned to let go of youth’s naivete and abandon, weaving new life lessons and attitudes into the mix. While so many albums are a snapshot in time, this one feels like time itself, literally representing the growth and lives of Ally Winford and Edward Trethowan.
That slow, meticulousness has shapes something unique and special. An Insection merges shoegaze, ambient, trip-hop, krautrock, trance, and post-rock into one of the most intriguing sound collages I have heard this year. These songs build beautifully, full of distortion with elegant melodies lurking behind the fuzz, slow changes in pace and loudness and the addition of new elements keep every moment engaging and reward multiple listens. Records this detailed take time, and if 14 years is what it took to make this magnificent of a debut, then it was time well spent. Thankfully, the experimental electronic label Bivalve is sharing this album with the world.
The middle of the album leans more into trip-hop and darker vibes, but this is also building up to the more experimental electronic and trance tracks that come later. Despite the shift in genre, the tone and execution of these elements feel natural, like the exhalation of creativity and emotional tension, each track a new opportunity to nurture, prune, and show off the seeds that were planted 14 years ago. The final tracks take us back to the dense, ambient sounds displayed earlier, but now feeling like a more realized and earned closure, as if the album itself was sequenced to reflect the arcs of growth that happen from your 20s to your 30s.
To Flyover Missing is a gorgeous and immersive debut that should put An Insection firmly on your radar. Snag a copy of To Flyover Missing from Bivalve‘s Bandcamp.
