Diskette Park – Radiant Covenant
Radiant Covenant
Diskette Park
Album
Signalwave
Liam Murphy
November 20, 2024
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The characteristics of the dreamtone genre lend themselves to long, drawn-out runtimes. Slow and blossoming sounds, be they behemoth synths or samples manipulated to last for unfathomably long stretches of time, make up a great deal of the tracks and albums released under the genre title. Lengthier runtimes also help with what should be considered one of the main purposes of the style: to lull the listener into a lucid, dreamy headspace. With this being the case, if a project doesn’t have a long runtime, can it still be effective?
Releases such as Bleeding Teal by ゆPlateformeゆ prove that the dreamtone style and experience can be packaged into a format where brevity is implemented. Sitting just shy of 20 minutes, the release on NO PROBLEMA DIGITAL is, as an insightful fan wrote on its bandcamp page, the “perfect length for a quick moment of solitude”.
ゆPlateformeゆ uses the runtime very carefully, drawing the listener in on Andros Weeps with euphoric swirls of sound that duck once or twice in pitch, accentuating the dramatic and continuous rise upwards. The artist hauls the listener over the peak of a sublime sonic mountain halfway through, as bass begins to permeate the soundscape and the notes shed a sibilant reverb that reaches out over an infinite expanse. Rain begins to fall over the vista, the listener has been fully immersed in an atmosphere of brilliance within a short amount of time.
As we fade back into the scene gradually, the rain has integrated itself into the soundscape, a deluge of water falls as a warm bud of sound begins to grow once again. It is as if we’ve come back to consciousness a few hours later, safe under cover. With the first track doing such an effective job of drawing the listener into this other realm in such a short time, ゆPlateformeゆ can now push into those longer lengths. Singing euphoria winds its way through to us through the cacophonous pitter-patter of droplets. As we pass the midway point, the rain slowly ebbs away, the artist allowing the listener to hear it fade. Its merciless downpour shrinking to a calm trickle and then down quieter still until it ceases. The aura continues its undulations, euphoric swirls carrying on unabated. Time has passed. At one point ruthless and powerful, the listener is able to hear the rain fade while still being held by a dreamy warmth on ♂♥♂.
The melodic aura of Victorious pushes out more explicitly than those before. A pained stream of notes that dives into a lower frequency, its poignant sound muffled momentarily before raising up to full bloom. The sound then begins to dip in volume causing a rhythmic energy to appear, an invisible hand pushing it downwards gently and repeatedly. ゆPlateformeゆ carefully ensures the fluidity of Bleeding Teal isn’t affected by this, with the dip in sound not being too low, allowing for a hypnotic sequence to begin. The sound continues to dip in frequency as well, shying away at sudden points, coaxing the listener into almost reaching out for it as it recedes. These dips in volume become sharper at a certain point as the mist clears for a short while. It is an abrupt phase in the track, with the usual ornate echoes that characterise the dreamtone sound stripped away. It brings the listener back towards normality as their short journey comes to an end.
Rewarding and rich while keeping a trim length, Bleeding Teal represents a deep breath in and out. It offers the listener an opportunity for introspection without demanding dozens of dozens of minutes of time. A sublime atmosphere, fit with sonic touchpoints and narrative arcs, is on full display in this quick moment of solitude.
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