Mads Emil Nielsen

"On this record, Mads Emil Nielsen divvies up two sides of 7” with a healthy ratio of two to two drum loops, each offering a smattering of ricocheting, crackling and structureless percussion, occasionally abetted with a bit of the ol’ synth additive.
As far as comparative pointers go, what comes to mind first is Nicolas Jaar’s construction site ambient record ‘Pomegranates’, which used drums to punctuate long, meandering trails of drone or textural excess. Here, though, Nielsen’s compositions stand alone, rather than as narrative devices: “Distance” rumbles in the deep with a bit of industrial drone afterthought running through the background, recalling artists like Strie in its ability to sound like the national anthem for a city sewage system. “Unfold”, meanwhile, seems to attempt an onomatopoeic representation of its title, with drums furling outwards in an endless stream as little buttons of synth sound tiny alarms. There’s something rather gripping about Nielsen’s experiments: they’re minimal, but they’re blustery, like a deep sleep you go in and out of every ten minutes." - Norman Records