_{By Luke Fuller}

Netsylph’s newest release, Year of Wood Dragon, caught me completely off guard with its depth and style. In an age of ‘breakcore’ and a propensity toward the intense, Netsylph takes a step back into a relaxed study on classic jungle. This relatively short album is perfectly hand crafted in every way to simultaneously engage, relax, and energize the listener.

Year of Wood Dragon is an exciting turn towards simplicity in instrumentation to make way for complexity in composition. “Ego” introduces the theme for the rest of the album — simple Rhodes piano, acoustic bass, and well chopped beats that don’t overwhelm. The album is front-loaded with intensity, focusing on the drum breaks and bass hits, yet it isn’t interested in pounding your face into the dirt (though that certainly does have its own appeal sometimes). It instead puts you into an experience akin to a sensory deprivation tank. It forces you to take a step back for a moment, listen to its crisp sound and minimalist instrumentation, and check your biases.

Netsylph’s neat production is definitely uncommon in smaller, indie-driven electronic communities, and it’s definitely a driving force here. It’s easy at times to opt for cranking things up to 10, with loud instruments that often make it easy to cover up mistakes but just as often create cheap thrills. With this quieter production there is a deeper attention to detail, and the artist has to work harder to mix instruments in a pleasing way. It’s a difficult feat to do for many artists and it’s nice to hear that deeper focus come through on this album. I’m hoping this (and a few other recent releases) help to nudge others in that direction and create a broader range of sound for the Utah music scene.

It’s hard to offer any single favorite track, as the entirety of this LP blends so perfectly together, but I’m definitely a fan of “Monk Mode.” There are faint plucks of what sounds like a funk guitar at the loop point of every break that I quite enjoy, and those small sonic experiences keep each track engaging without distracting from the central point of the album. My only hope is that there is more stuff like this coming from Netsylph soon. This album shows great promise in their abilities, and I look forward to a full-length release, or at least one with enough music to last me an hour.

For first-time listeners of Year of Wood Dragon, I would recommend listening to this on its own at first rather than letting things like work or driving get in the way as the album runs in the background. Your mind will thank you.

You can follow Netsylph on Instagram and check out the track “Monk Mode” from Year of Wood Dragon below!