Conor Fynes 'Rstw' - Senmuth (3/10)

Without a doubt to be Senmuth's most ambient and mellow effort among hundreds of albums by the Russian madman Valery Av, 'Rstw' shows many of the same signs of his ambient music, except for the fact that things here are much more minimalistic and less eventful than ever before. The resulting effect is something that could be better described as an 'atmospheric sleep' over any sort of engaging listening experience.

For the first three tracks, little can be said for sparing an Eastern drum rhythm that very steadily builds, very quietly pattering at the drums while some scarce soundscaping occurs. By the album's fourth track 'Teti Djed Sut', the listener (providing one is still awake) will start to hear some faster drum paces, and louder atmospherics, although nothing much has changed since 'Rstw' began.

Then, everything changes with 'Upuaut', which for the first time in the album, throws in some downtuned guitar distortion, which comes as a major wake-up call. Unfortunately, the possibility of dynamic here is marred by the same tired guitar lick being done to death. Luckily however, the album finally starts to build some real worth and listening quality until the ending of this painfully boring album.

While the rest of the album from post-midway to end begins feeling like a typical ethno- ambient album of Senmuth, 'Rstw' does spawn an unlikely highlight with 'Famine Stela', a rocky ambient piece that is easily the most haunting, dissonant and inventive thing on the album. Making use of high frequencies and ambient distortion over an exotic Middle- Eastern rhythm section, this might take a surprising investment to enjoy, but it is quite worth it.

With the rest of the album falling into the mediocre ambient work of Senmuth, there's little else to say, besides the comment that it is interesting to see such an intentional build-up throughout the first half of the album, although- as a result- it made the first half virtually unlikeable. A generally weak album with an interesting concept, and a handful of promising moments.