Loscil – Endless Falls (2010) [Kranky] // Grade: B+

I struggle with finding the best means of experiencing ambient electronic music. It’s not a genre I’ve ever particularly enjoyed live. I find little allure in spending an hour on public transit to be melodically pushed to a standing sleep. I find it equally counterproductive as a backdrop for my work days that consist of long hours and unexciting tasks. But it always seems that just when I’m ready to write off the genre, ambient electronica finds me at random, providing an entirely appropriate soundtrack to a specific moment, and proving appreciation situational.

In this most recent instance, the credit goes to Vancouver ambient producer Loscil (Scott Morgan) and his water-themed concept album, Endless Falls. Making use of both piano and violin, and ending with dynamic spoken word, Endless Falls is painfully, and gorgeously minimal, a highly intelligent, creative landscape of orchestral dub.

Morgan convinces the listener to pay close attention from the album’s outset. The title track’s violin work, provided by Kim Koch, dips its oars into a dark and lonely lake, propelling a boat heading to nowhere. “Shallow Water Blackout” pulls the boat aside into an unexplored outcropping, where water drips from above then ripples around you, enveloping you in nature’s echoes. Daybreak through still sleepy eyes is signaled via “Showers Of Ink”‘s pulsing chimes. But it’s not quite time to awaken from Morgan’s meticulously crafted watery dream. Destroyer frontman Dan Bejar lulls you back to nonsensical dreamland with rambling, stream-of-consciousness spoken word on Endless Falls‘ closer, “The Making Of Grief Point”.

Endless Falls might be overly conceptual, but it’s a concept that Morgan executes so well that you can’t help but let yourself, let go.

- Scrooge McFuck