Num9

Coque Yturriaga’s talents have been in use for Spanish-based folk-electronica band Emak Bakia, and the now defunct Migala, but now he returns with his own sole creation, Num9. The album is subdued minimalist electronica, somewhat in the vein of Boards of Canada's ilk, although with accented English vocals over the music like ketchup over caviar. A classic example of this mess is 'The Wait’ which feels like a perfectly fine lounge style affair which builds slowly with tempo, and with random samples thrown around, but then the vocals appear with forgettable lyrics and the music loses the power it had mustered, although when the vocals disappear in the last two minutes the song reaches its frenzied climax with sampled applause, finding some kind of redemption I suppose. 'Poem de la resistencia’ for example, however, escapes untarnished, with deep beats, random Spanish samples of gruff men grunting at each other. It’s a short instrumental but shows what the rest of the album could have been.

Rhythmic and endless monotone beats are occasionally broke up with a keyboard spluttering to life and dying repeatedly; the music threatens to become mesmeric in a sublime way but ultimately falls short, and I cant help but feel the use of the English language, and perhaps language itself, equally prevents the music from soaring to heights that Coque's previous outings have reached. Whereas now; instead, the music feels unnecessarily encumbered, restrained and somewhat diluted, perhaps for more international success.