Vangel

Biblio, by Toronto, ON-based producer/DJ Vangel, has been described as a "journey that teeters on the edge of elevator music…," and it's absolutely true. Strip away the phenomenal percussion that courses through the veins of each song and you're left with mandolins and acoustic guitars, subdued horns and woodwinds, a spattering of keys here and there — the perfect elements to make the trip to your fifth floor doctor's office that much more unpleasant. On their own, they lack richness, intensity. Vangel, however, has the ability to layer the instrumentation in a beautiful, engaging way before pulling each track together with explosive, experimental, emotional percussion. It's an impressive feat, considering half the tracks on the Biblio EP could stand alone simply with its mixing and percussive elements (the latter akin to a few tracks off DJ Shadow's Entroducing, namely "The Number Song" and "Mutual Slump"). The atmosphere created through Biblio's soundscape is pure bliss filtered through a spectrum of emotions. From the incertitude nestled within "Broken Jazz Hands" to the suppressed urgency of "MoneyMoney," Vangel comes full circle with his latest release.