Novel 23
About
Roman Belousov (Роман Белоусов) is Novel 23, a Russian producer who has appeared on various compilations and 12-inches from Merck, Toytronic, Surgery, and Shaped Harmonics. His first full-length, Melodies of Childhood for Advanced Imagination, was released by Pitchcadet in limited number in 1999 and republished in 2000. It's no surprise that Belousov cites Depeche Mode as his foremost musical influence; he's always been fascinated with their knack for all things melancholic.
When he heard Orbital, Aphex Twin, Bochum Welt and others in the early '90s, he was impressed with their ability to evoke similar emotions without vocals. He made up his mind to follow in their footsteps, and clearly he's succeeded. With a roomful of vintage Russian synthesizers at his disposal, he creates compositions featuring distorted melodies and electro beats that capture the best of the '80s and early '90s.
Architectural Effcects is an album with a classic IDM feel, an analogue universe from the get go, full of busy, hummable melodies. The first impression - and one that lasts - is that, good lord, this is old school to the point of apparently having rebounded here via a warp in the spacetime continuum. This is simultaneously clunky and graceful music, with many tracks having that mournful, lonesome key to them. With sweeping synths and slightly out of tune melodies produced by oscillators as if the music were recorded in a too warm room. On bandcamp you can find "23 years of music by Novel 23" or "Retrospective", a compilation of several old best released tracks, which were remixed in 2020.
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