My first dose of Segue was brought to me by the dependable Dewtone, on their Foundations II release last year. ‘House of Cards’ was a shimmering, atmospheric ambient piece that burns, into slowly evolving fractions of light – you could soundtrack the Aurora Borealis with this piece, it was that beautiful. I ended up using the track in my ‘White Light’ mix to depict the very moment the light hits (see here for a bit more context and for the mix!)
News of a full release on Silent Season was then of course, greatly received, but my first taster I have to admit, wasn’t what I expected. ‘Snow Dub’, accompanied by an excellent video below, is a chugging warm dub-techno piece with subtle percussions – a far stretch from ‘House Of Cards’. But change is always welcomed and actually made me anticipate ‘Pacifica’ even more than usual.
Turns out Segue’s new album is quite the evolution. ‘Pacifica’ seems to straddle neatly in-between a warm ambient sound and organic dub-techno, and each track is a unique evolution from the next, forming a comprehensive and quite simply brilliant album.
Segue’s sound is mature – each track sounds confident and full of purpose. You’ll be reminded of Pop Ambient’s signature sounds at times – take ‘La Rue’ for example. You’ll find sublime deep dubby stuff we’ve come to love from artists such as Textural Being, and ambient textures often associated with masters of the genre like Loscil. Rub all that around a slightly warmer and more melodic approach that only the likes of Dewtone and Silent Season can offer, and you’ve got ‘Pacifica’ – one of my favourite albums of the year so far.
