From Buffalo, New York, survey channel (I'll be using lowercase to refer to the artist because that's how they have it) has been releasing music on Bandcamp since 2019, but this is my first encounter with this artist. 'Macrozones' is a 5-track EP of electronic music skewing towards the IDM/ambient end of the spectrum. It's a wonderful listen and I would highly recommend it!
'Mask of Continuity' opens the EP in exemplary fashion, a nice gentle beat in the background topped with gorgeous glistening chords with a great amount of delay reverberating throughout. I can't imagine listening to this track and NOT wanting to hear the rest of the EP, it's a great opening track! 'The Integration' follows, which is a purely ambient track, with lyrics buried deep in the background. I'm not a big fan of lyrics in my ambient but it works here because whatever is being said is so cryptic and hidden as to really be just another part of the sound palette. It really works! For the third track survey channel offers 'Inner Landscape,' which also leans towards ambient, but as with the first track there is a subtle beat and some nice bass accompaniment. There's also a very good spoken word sample. The melody is great and I have a feeling this track is going to get stuck in my head! 'Ruinenlust' is the longest track on this EP at just over 6 minutes, and has a slightly darker vibe melodically, while not being dramatically outside of the overall sonic vibe. The beat is a little more active on this track. If the kick drum doesn't get your head nodding I don't know what will! The EP concludes with 'Voice Guiding' which concludes the proceedings with another ambient track with cryptic voices in the mix, which you can sort of make out bits of the dialogue. 5 for 5 here all of these tracks are great!
survey channel has created a wonderful sound world on this EP, every track feels of a whole with the others but yet they all stand out on their own. I'd have liked to hear more, a whole album of this sound would be great. I look forward to listening to more survey channel!
If you like IDM/ambient/electronic music, survey channel is an artist you should definitely check out, and 'Macrozones' is well worth your time and money. Two enthusiastic thumbs up from this reviewer!
Brian/ANHNCH