For his fourth release, New York-based producer FaltyDL returns with In the Wild, a broad, patchy, semi-traversable landscape of lithe melodies and drifting ambience, and a notable departure from the house-y grounding of prior release Hardcourage. The charm of the disconnected, breezy path that starts the album — seeming interludes punctuated by the odd story of a more solid, structured track — quickly wears thin when you realize said path meanders, the tracks mostly underdeveloped, only occasionally rolling into a bigger sound with tangible depth.
In the Wild's two singles, in fact, are the only tracks to give buoyancy to the album. The ambiance of "Do Me" drifts in on a bed of organ static courtesy of prior track "Uptight" and drops in a dark chorus of looped chanting vocals and thick, seamless percussion before slipping back into the mist with the disjointed "Greater Antilles Part 1." Similarly, second single, "Some Jazz Shit," is easily the pinnacle of the album, a beacon after wading through debris, but it's not enough to keep In the Wild afloat. (Ninja Tune, www.ninjatune.net) Ashley Hampson
(Ninja Tune)In the Wild's two singles, in fact, are the only tracks to give buoyancy to the album. The ambiance of "Do Me" drifts in on a bed of organ static courtesy of prior track "Uptight" and drops in a dark chorus of looped chanting vocals and thick, seamless percussion before slipping back into the mist with the disjointed "Greater Antilles Part 1." Similarly, second single, "Some Jazz Shit," is easily the pinnacle of the album, a beacon after wading through debris, but it's not enough to keep In the Wild afloat. (Ninja Tune, www.ninjatune.net) Ashley Hampson