- The Brighton artist's cinematic side meets the swoon of his earlier work on this banner EP.
- Ital Tek's music is always in flux. In the past decade, he's gone from hip-hop-inspired post-dubstep to footwork fusions to post-rock and soundtrack material. The only constant is a strong sense of melodrama, the feeling that there's always something eerie lurking around the corner. What makes Dream Boundary—a companion EP to his last LP, Outland—so appealing is that it stops that flux. With broken beats set against cinematic landscapes, Dream Boundary recalls the majesty of his best album, 2010's Midnight Colour, where synths swell like aurora borealis and melodies cascade like meteor showers.
Dream Boundary instantly sounds more confident than either of Ital Tek's last two LPs, probably because he's in his comfort zone. The swooning and decayed electronics of "Time Burns Heavy" could have come straight from 2010, except for a new sense of restraint that keeps it from sounding dated. The stunning opener "Deletion Quarter" is full of mean, knife-edged textures, while "Dream Boundary" is as evocative as its title, with a boom-bap beat and an illusory chime melody that fades in and out of key. Here, Ital Tek's newfound interest in texture and tension meets his old beat-making style halfway, making this little EP one of the most satisfying releases in his catalogue.
Tracklist01. Deletion Quarter
02. Dream Boundary
03. Wintered
04. Time Burns Heavy
05. Nocturn