The Glitch Mob - 'Drink the Sea' [Review]

After hearing the historic releases from edIT, Kraddy, Boreta, Ooah and their collective, one gets accustomed to the intentional stutters, skips, hums and otherwise harmonic distortions essential to the "glitch-hop" movement.  It's not easy at first and it's certainly not for all - there's plenty of people who are lukewarm at best to it - but once you jump in and get used to the temperature you start to fully accept glitch as a pursuit of its own. Even after the loss of Kraddy, the EDM community eagerly anticipated the release of a complete album from the three that would really knock the purists for a loop.

Then again, books are not be judged by their covers, especially when you have a hard time deciphering what the book is all about.

Drink the Sea is, well, different, which is to say it's different from the different we expected.  But then again, just as glitch showed us years before, different is not bad.



First of all and most obvious, at least to my untrained ears, is the lack of... glitch.  Okay, it's there, but it's much more subtle than their previous work.  This isn't a glitch album by any means.  It is a bit reminiscent of 2008's "Nalepa 'Monday' Remix", and when you listen to their releases chronologically you'll realize they refined their technique in the older single.

This of course, begs the question - what are we listening to now, then?

Whatever it is - "ambient industrial shoegaze big beat trip-hop" is the best I can come up with- it's fantastic.  Slow and powerful, but not lumbering or awkward.  The whole album is cohesive and smooth.  One of my favorite tracks is "Between Two Points", where Swan's vocals are glitched appropriately enough and grabs you with a magnetism rarely seen by these producers.

I'm not sure what it all means, but it's an album I couldn't live without, either.  It's an experience that one must have to accept but will find it hard to completely understand.