Mokira - Persona

MOKIRA - PERSONA (TYPE)

One of the more esoteric producers of recent years, and always careful not to be tied down to one sort of genre, Andreas Tiliander has slowly emerged as a talent of genuine worth, but arguably yet to produce a great record. Various aliases have seen him release records on such labels as Raster-Noton, Mille Plateaux and his own imprint Repeatle, and it’s with Xela’s label Type that he returns on “Persona”.

The title leaves little in the way of clues behind as we’re subjected to a gorgeous opening, stuttering melodies coalescing into a swamp-like drone on “About Last Step and Scale”. There’s a scratchy feel to his atmospheres, with little in the way of other sounds penetrating what seems to be a tightly sprung wash of noise punctuated only occasionally by flickering tones. This is one long piece broken into 7 songs, each recognisable in their singularity, but still possessing a strong narrative. By “Lord, Am I going down?”, the constant noise is accompanied by cloudy echoes of movement that mature on “Contour” as Tiliander starts to sketch out his journey with rhythmic pulses, inflecting matters with an ever-so subtle dub edge. This proves to be a tantalising bridge, as the noise and static ebb away, leaving one with a skeletal template that provides the framework for the album’s highlight, the immense “Valla Torg Kraut”, which brings to mind slight hints of “Kling Klang” era Kraftwerk, as if he really wants to go back to the very roots of electronic music. The title I guess gives that away, but it’s a gloriously assembled piece in the way the track builds out of the preceeding music. There’s even more nods to all things 1971 and Germany with “Oscillations and Tremolo”, which takes two elements and fuses them like a helix, echoing again the very earliest elements of Kraftwerk and Cluster. Although initially arresting, it feels flippant and without the care and attention that the rest of the album carries throughout. By the time we come to the end song “Your Loser has Gone”, reprising the catchy melody that starts the album and ending matters with a long drawn out ambient piece, it feels as if the chance to lay the foundation of a great album has been missed.

“Persona” contains a strong narrative that is brought to an abrupt end halfway through and only then is rescued at the end by the reprising of a familiar melody. As such I felt as if this was again another chance missed by Tiliander to put together something with real weight behind it. The inclusion of “Oscillations” may be a desire by him to throw a spanner in the works right when one least expected it, and I guess from that perspective one can only applaud his boldness, but to my mind it obstructs what could have been a very memorable album.

Toby Frith