L'ombre - Simulations 2.0
Picking up where his 2003 release, Simulations 1.0, left off, Simulations 2.0 continues Sawyer's evolution from a cold and ghostly dark ambient player to a cinematic isolationist with a machine-driven heartbeat that thrums steadily beneath his capacious soundtracks. Split equally between new material and remixes (seven of them supplied by similarly-thinking artists like Enduser, Mimetic, Ab Ovo, Hecq, Displacer and S:cage), Simulations 2.0 is more than a simple variation of L'ombre's oeuvre: it's a whole new iteration of Sawyer's cinematic polish, lit by neon reflections and polished chrome and cut by an subterranean undercurrent of dark beats.
"Jackhammer Blues" and "Subway Tunnel Advertising" bristle with dark beats, dark marching rhythms that lurch with an urban insouciance. "City Speak" echoes with the hollow reverberation of drums rumbling through a tactile fog of noisome static. Sawyer isn't building metropolitan pastoral symphonies any more; his soundtracks have a gritty, urban drive to them and sound like they could very easily be adapted as themes and leitmotifs for a remake of Walter Hill's The Warriors. In "Relax It's Digital" and "No Referent," Sawyer's ambience is filled with the leaking hum of the downtempo jazz club and the glitch chatter from a thousand difference electronic sources. Even "Vanishing Point," which sounds as if it escaped from a Loscil record, is accompanied by a bass drum and metallic drum kit.
The remixers, for the most part, accentuate the existing thematic thrust of their individual tracks. Ab Ovo's remix of "Relax It's Digital" is simply more digital than the original -- neither faster nor slower, just filled with more digital processing and crackling synthesis while Displacer's remix of "City Speak" focuses on the drums, bringing them closer in the mix. Enduser's remix of "Urban Estate" snares the same luscious drone of "Vanishing Point" and demolishes it in a broken cataclysm of drum 'n' bass and sub-sonic rumblings. Hecq's two remixes of "Reality Loop" vanish in either direction, the "Hysteria Jive" mix shuttling off to an uptown dance club while the "Echo Implant" mix dissolves into the slow water running down the streets and vanishing into the storm drains. S:cage brings the rhythmic noise train hard into the station for "Off Course," and Mimetic's remix of "Interlocution" is a stellar conglomeration of the L'ombre aesthetic: a self-contained five-minute soundtrack that moves from the ghostly ambience of L'ombre's Medicine For The Meaningless to the dark hop beats that permeate Simulations 2.0 with the added bonus of the orchestral flair that suffuses Mimetic's work.
I'm continually impressed with Stephen Sawyer's work; each of his records as L'ombre have distinct personalities and demonstrate Sawyer's continued growth as an artist. Simulations 2.0 is just the next iteration in that evolution, adding propulsive beats and gritty urban sizzle to his already immaculately constructed static-laced ambience. Bravo.
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