Kernel Existence—Kripascular

Kernel Existence
Kripascular
Konsequent Records

Links: Kernel Existence Facebook | Konsequence Records

Tobias Draeger nests within the chaos of cables, chords, and machinery that help define his electronic persona. It is a direct correlation to the work that encapsulates Kripascular, Kernel Existence’s sophomore release. The album is a technical masterpiece that falls within the core elements of the German school and explodes into a duality of polished sounds and rough cacophony. Kripascular results in one of the more deeply engaging electronic albums of the year.

The way Draeger layers beats and sound within a song like “Terminal,” he wastes no time getting us into the mindset of filtered club lights, humidity, mental tracers, and the hypnotic power his music possesses. It sometimes borders on being too much, but that is also its allure. I feel hyper-aware of the voyeurism without catering to the microcosm of his deeply layered compositions. But once you focus on the details, the work put into this album is immense. Where Endais Atlantis was about rethinking the philosophy of how Draeger made electronic music, Kripascular pushes that philosophy past its edges.

It is in this world that he shuns the stiffness of music’s geometry and focuses on the primal passions. The pulse in “Touchee” or the rolling samples on “Loquel” all touches on the adrenaline that makes electronic music exciting and almost dangerous. Is it the overprocessed effects? The drug-like aural fantasy? The expressionism of the product?

If you experience Kripascular as a statement, the songs begin to melt into each other, circling around the listener of external and internal consciousness. Draeger bends reality, and that is really what makes this album so exciting. I feel like he has made a prominent statement while allowing his creation to breathe within your own perception, creating new worlds and scenarios.

It’s refreshing that an album like Kripascular breaks out of the mode of traditional dance elements while expressing the importance of how these elements are presented.

Tracklist:

1. OPI
2. Terminal
3. Asist
4. Toucheè
5. Mory
6. Octone
7. Loquel
8. Dest
9. Broken Pins
10. Kripascular
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