Datach'i

Most people who hear New York producer Datach’i’s most recent work are just going to think that it’s weird shit. It has the same effect on most underground pop music fans as the Blood Brothers. Most emo kids who like it, do so because of how it completely redefines for them what you can do with a hook — hide it. The indie crowd either eats up the adventurous spirit of innovation, or else at their most lucid, miss the point. Literally, Shock Diamonds is lucid. "Lilian” finds a way to peer through a crudely animated fight between IDM and drill & bass, which begins over why they don’t like glitch, enough to break it up from across the Atlantic, get them all listening to techno together, and make you think you hear a guitar somewhere in there; this just two tracks after sending a dirty postcard to jungle on "Shutter” in under two seconds of play time. The first half of the album features more sampling and ambient manipulation, while the middle tends to start wearing thin, but rewards after repeated listens. It’s certainly not for the casual music appreciation, but it has the propensity to elicit respect from all sides of the musical spectrum. Unfortunately, the momentum tapers. Still, the tracks are spaced out from one another considerably, giving the feeling that they were supposed to be taken as individual statements: "Blind” recalls a visionless man stumbling amongst clutter. Is it self conscious analogy? Behold eccentricity.