Zaflon - LDP1

Zaflon provides an interesting mix of songs on their little LDP1 EP. With just four tracks, it's a solid set, varied and impactful. 

Things do get off to a bit of an uneven start, with the semi-ambient 'Despite All Odds', including some weird guitar plucks throwing it off-kilter, as do odd vocalizations here and there. Still, it builds  through a variety of gurgly sections that keep you guessing. Not terrible, but not terribly auspicious either.

The two best tracks are those featuring guest singer Gilan Music. Amazingly, in both of them, she sings a 'duet' with herself, performing both the female and seemingly lower range 'male' vocals, to great effect. The first is 'Nightmare Divison', a slow, rolling song that reminds me of being in a submarine. The second, '7 Stalkers', is fragile and hard, like a crystalline menagerie of machinery held together by the gossamer strands of her voice and swooping strings, alternating with the machine unleashing itself in powerful, pounding bursts that would impress Richard D. James.

The odd track out is 'Dear Friend of Mine', a song that seemingly mocks the concept of singing. It starts out with a nice, moody, downtempo groove. But while the vocals start out rather lovely, they are quickly modulated to bizarre lengths, with freaky vibrations and stretching that makes them beyond annoying. It's just like, why? Why did you feel the need to do that? It really wrecks the whole song for no good reason.

So what we have here are two phenomenal tracks and two so-so tracks. But the good ones are so good that this is still definitely worth picking up for trip hop fans.