"Soft Hand Feel" is only $25.00CAN plus shipping and taxes where applicable!

Kinder Atom "Soft Hand Feel"
The latest release from Toronto based Kinder Atom, a CD/DVD package exploring a wide variety of electronic styles

Kinder Atom is a project well known in the Toronto electronic scene as being an intelligent and experimental act that has always been on the cutting edge of contemporary sounds as well as being very talented and engaging visual artists. With the release of their CD/DVD set "Soft Hand Feel" they have brilliantly blended the two mediums and created a work that is both aurally and visually stunning, an electronic tour de force that confirms their well deserved reputation and builds upon it.

The disc begins with "Eagle Sprouts", a beat driven track where melodies spiral and mingle with eachother. Piano and choked notes play around eachother, equally blended and independent of themselves.

"Japan Cakes" follows using a snare rhythm pattern paired with a high-end repeated organ-y synth with a deep synth line overtop. As the track progresses it takes on a certain variation both musically and moodwise, but it always stays true to its initial musical truth, returning on a few occasions to the same melodic ideal. It's a great example of how a track can grow and develop, while still holding true to its initial theme.

Track three, "Sangria", has a more subtle sound to it, a lower almost stifled intro, which develops into something a little more upbeat, jazzy percussion and synth playing around eachother in a battle for track dominance. It's a playful piece with a strong sense of fun.

"Bubble" follows with a percolating synth intro that plays overtop an almost spacey ambient backdrop, soon joined by a steady snare heavy beat and deep synth stabs. Very nice.

"Broken Bedsprings" has an elastic percussive feel to it, a rapid high speedtale of drums and other ideas that move the song forward and around. It's really good, quite engaging.

"DB8" is a very nice drum and bass piece, an intelligent approach to the style, both adding elements (pads and piano melody) and remaining true to the d'n'b aesthetic. Very nice.

"Bring the Herbs" slows down the tempo, adding a vocal from Musical Sniper, and throwing in a reggae feel. It's a nice change of pace for the disc, a nice variation from the styles presented to this point.

"Ascension" follows a darker path than other tracks on the disc, having a very cinematic and dramatic feel to it. It evokes police cars driving down lonely streets on rainy nights, film noir at it's best. Wonderful.

Title track "Soft Hand Feel" incorporates elements of all the previous tracks before it, almost a travelogue of the disc's sounds. Both elastic and theatrical, percussive and ambient, all the sounds from before and more.

"Car Audio" is of course a driving song, pads representing the road and a beat to make your head bob in the same way that all the best road songs do. It's a soundtrack to cruising, highway groove tracks made for summer listening. Very nice.

In addition to the audio on the first disc the album also comes with a DVD featuring both videos and remixes, showcasing Kinder Atom as being a true multimedia project, comfortable as both aural and visual artists. Overall a very satisfying and impressive package from a very impressive act.

rik - ping things