Room Of Wires – White transit

Room Of Wires is an ambient/downtempo/electronic duo with a very peculiar story. The two collaborators, both named Andrew, have never met in real life, and they know very little about each other. Everything started on Soundcloud, with a spontaneous exchange of tracks, ideas, opinions. One day they started collaborating, working via a shared Dropbox folder and upload files. The name Room Of Wires comes from this situation, a virtual space, and a reference to physical computer wires.

Despite this premise, their music sounds as a coherent product, born from their common love for dark, uneasy electronic music and textures, and broken rhythms. In 2014 they published their first digital album Asylum Sneaker (Section 27), an evocative ambient affair with dark undertones, followed by the self-released album Dead Skins (2015), Used As A Runner (2016, Section 27), Mastakink ‎(2017, self-released), and Black Medicine (2017, Section 27). Each work showed a progressive evolution, as the duo took confidence and developed a personal songwriting.

Now they return with White Transit, probably their most mature work to date. Here ambient, downtempo, broken rhythms, digital and analog synths, samples of different nature, collide into a mutant flow made of different suggestions, dark vibes, cinematic atmospheres, and engaging rhythmic patterns.

If the Title track employs ritualistic ambient mantras made of atmospheric drones, enriched by crawling rhythms and suave minimal melodies, episodes like Dried eyes present a tapestry of emotional movements and subtle samples, evoking a surreal and eerie soundscape with a dreamlike stream of consciousness. Here piano notes and sudden broken structures complete an engaging track which plays with placid waves of sound and controlled rhythmic patterns.

Reflex yarn starts as a brooding dark ambient affair with noisy qualities, but then it changes into a compelling march with old-school drum machines and melancholic lines. The juxtaposition of different moods and elements works perfectly, in a convincing flow without any abrupt cut. Abyss lives up to its name, offering a pulsating affair with sharp effects and intelligent ambiances. A cinematic soundscape is built upon a series of samples, slow rhythms and ghostly melodies.

Apocalypse beach ends the work with lo-fi dreamscapes and distant guitar arpeggios, conjuring a track full of existential melancholy and ominous undertones. The sound of the sea can be heard in the distance, making us think of distant memories and lost happiness. If in the past the duo was more concerned with rhythmic structures than emotions, now we find a balanced compromise between the two elements.

White transit is a suggestive work with engaging tracks mixing ambient, broken rhythms, soothing melodies, and dark undertones. Modern electronics and digital production meet old-school elements and analog sounds, in a coherent result graced by a well developed songwriting allowing apt changes and some surprises. Room Of Wires deserve the attention of any lover of modern ambient music with interesting rhythms and patterns.

Label: Self-released

Rating: 7,5