SND occupy a little space in my soul. I’ve been following their music since they first came out with Makesnd Cassette. Back then, they focused on bass and the low end a bit more. Synthesizers milled around slowly in your head at a languid pace.
Never prolific, they took their time with each and every release. Each release seemed to come closer to their perfect ideal. EPs were common in the early days, with things like “Travelog” giving a slightly more subdued flavor than their Mille Plateaux outings suggested.
Finally, what appeared to be their swan song came out. “Tenderlove” spoke to nearly everyone that year. Mixing hip-hop production values with an increased focus on melody, it put me in a trance the way that little minimal does. They know how to limit their palette without taking away from the music. Yes, these are grooves, and they appear lush, but really they are perfectly formulated.
After that, nothing came from them for about six years. Sure, there were little compilation releases, and Mark Fell had a solo album on L-NE, but otherwise little else. Oh yeah, Blir appeared on Raster Noton, and I thought that the SND project was through, and we’d only get whatever leftovers they had lying around.
But a magical thing happened in 2008.The 4,5,6 Vinyl got released by SND, and they brought out their first T-shirt. Plus, they got around to designing a website for their band, a big thing for a duo so focused on remaining anonymous.
Finally, Atavism dropped in 2009. I was happy. All those harsh edges from the Vinyl had been smoothed out. Of course, the music remained as challenging as ever. But they had changed considerably. For one, a lot of their old formulas had changed, now they were less focused on loops and more on patterns. The joy of hearing the mutations on “8:22” cannot be expressed. It is like hearing some sort of musical origami, with so much being made out of so little.
“4:29” seems to veer in and out of perception. Parts of the song appear to come into focus only to slowly move away from the listener. Those warm chords get nearly hidden during “7:09” as the track trudges forward. And “2:13” virtually is dance music, but with a stuttering problem.
SND doesn’t even realize how heavily they reference pop music. It is as if their music is made in some crystal clean vacuum, blissfully unaware of what goes on outside. And we’re better off for it.