Khotin – Release Spirit
Release Spirit is an understated and often incredibly pretty addition to Khotin’s discography
Khotin has increasingly dealt in haze as his work has progressed, gravitating towards what was just a thread of drifting synth pads and delicately softened pianos in his earlier house 12-inches. Here he continues that gravitation.
We have all the washes of new-age synth and downtempo drums we’ve come to expect from his work, evoking that similar, bittersweet feeling of his. It’s no more evident than on closer Sound Gathering Trip on which simple patterns of chiming piano chords root everything, while all manner of hiss, and synth tones fizz around it. It’s a truly gorgeous closer.
This may all sound a little like it is at the very least hovering at the edge of mawkish, but it’s something he avoids by maintaining enough little flourishes of grit. It may be the straight out of a butcher’s shop kick drum on Techno Creep or the 80s industrial throb hidden at the centre of Fountain, Growth (featuring Tess Roby), there’s always just enough there to stop it tipping over.
The record feels like someone truly in control of their craft, to the extent that it begins to suffer from this a touch, all of its edges honed too perfectly, too considered to leave any sense of spontaneity, even if it is often beautifully done.
Listen to: Fountain, Growth (feat. Tess Roby), Sound Gathering Trip, Computer Break (Late Mix)