Genre: IDM

01 Dihedral
02 40 Microns
03 Airlocked
04 Rocket Science
05 Theta Sigma
06 Nestor 10
07 Sensor Relays
08 Transbeam
09 4001
10 Intersticial

This time Boltfish recordings, a label functionating since 2004 and specialising in electronic and organic sounds, suggests the world an album – debut album - of another IDM act – Z-Arc, an electronic brainchild of UK musician Kris Derry. He has some musical background – back in 90’s he used to play live keyboards in a number of pop-rock groups and DJ'd, developing his own style. Kris Derry released his music on solo ep's and various compilations through netlabels Octoberman Recordings & Clickclickdrone since 2005, also he issued a remix on Patchwork by Boltfish Recordings.

Regarding the sound, Kris Derry was definitely inspired by sci-fi novels. The album has futuristic, crystally transparent sound that fills the space around you, a soundtrack for dreaming about the other worlds in other galaxies, dwellings that inhabit far away planets, technoid, advanced new civilizations with highly developed science that are going to rise on the ruins of our world. This music reminds standing at the gates that are going to introduce the listener to the new, better world, it makes one’s mind produce a picturesque chain of images. Kris Derry managed to create a really atmospheric, ethereal, multi-textured, high quality album.

The sound sometimes makes one think to Vangelis (as in some parts of the track called Transbeam) and partly (track Dihedral, for example) it made me think to Tzolk’in, although both artists seem to have different conceptions and different approach (I assume the means of expressions sounded similar and made me think so). Generally Z-Arc takes much from “industrial” idm (just listen to sophisticated rhythmic structures that fill the space throughout the album), synthpop (lyrical passages, as in track 40 Microns, which make one thing to such bands as Simulator) and ambient/trance music like Aes Dana and HUVA Network. All those genres mix take you and carry far far away, probably so far you wouldn’t like to return back. If you are still not familiar with Boltfish Recordings and Z-Arc act particularly, you still have time to repair an omission.