InLensk – Obratno

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Other People is excited to debut the work of 19-year-old Russian producer Gena Volgarev, aka InLensk, with the Obratno EP. Translated as backward, or conversely, Obratno seems obsessed with and frustrated by a sense of nostalgia that can never lock its focus. Finely etched, highly detailed rhythms retain a cerebral cool fluttering over, under, and around melancholic digital melodies that bend and degrade sporadically. Meanwhile, the tactile use of filtering, extreme pans, and hypnotic microprogramming reveals an interest in sound’s ability to shift temporal perception and evoke a purely neural response. Yet there’s an intuitive warmth to a track like ‘U 1’, where a percolating guitar-line seeps through the austerity of a woody, lo-bit groove. Inspired by the artist’s childhood in the provincial village of Lensk (thus the pseudonym), Obratnoliterally looks backward for its world. The track titles codify minute, yet impactful aspects of Gena’s past. ‘V 4’, for example, translating to ‘in 4’, references his tight quartet of best friends, skipping along with an appropriately jocular bassline, tottering cowbell, and a deep, accentual ‘Hahaha.’ Wherever wistfulness appears there’s also anxiety, manifest acutely in the unpredictable percussion. A snatch of Amen break cuts to a strike of open hi-hat and then a roll of heavy toms, never repeating texturally, even if there is a constant pulse. It’s the contrast of speed and weight, between the drums and the melody, that creates a provocative air of avid melancholia — grasping for something not too far in the past that’s fading faster than it should.