Dryft – Ventricle

It's been an entire decade since Cadoo released his solo debut album, Cell. Prior to exploring his drum'n'bass demons, Cadoo worked with Mike Wells under their celebrated Gridlock alias, with numerous releases on a variety of labels. The last full length album, Formless, was put out by Hymen in 2003. Right about that time, Cadoo sprung off in another direction, with live instrumentation and glitch infused shoegaze, releasing lauded work as Bitcrush on his own label, n5MD (see part one of this special for his latest). And just when I thought that Cadoo would abandon his signature dark and crunchy IDM sound altogether, he awakens from his hibernation as Dryft with Ventricle! This is more than just a "side-project" - in this hard hitting, industrial-strength comeback, Cadoo admits to explore the subconscious compositions and explorations of his mind since the disband of Gridlock. As if there were a few things unsaid, Dryft brings back the "massive enveloping drones and rusty clatter" that has left us in the dark, aching for more... But make no mistake - Ventricle is not the ghostly echo of the dormant Gridlock - this is the new sound of Dryft, pushing the envelope of experimental IDM further up a notch. A must for any fan of dark and cinematic passages, wrapped in solid beats and drenched in morphing DSP. Recommended if you also like Kattoo, Access To Arasaka, Hecq, Somatic Responses, Architect and Nebulo.

Now this was an album that I had been looking forward to for quite some time. With Gridlock gone, Mike Wells not making good on his promise to continue the Gridlock sound under O2, and Bitcrush creating (boring) post rock, it seemed fans of the godly sound that Wells and Caddoo used to create were left with a void in their heart. I'm sad to report that the void is still present, but maybe just a little bit smaller now. Ventricle is not the opus I was waiting for. Echoes of Gridlock and older Dryft are present, but that darned Bitcrush influence is still here. I guess Caddoo is just in the mind set of long, ambient driven tracks. This is not drum n bass, as his early work was labeled. I guess IDM fits the bill. I give him credit for reviving this project because it is better then nothing, but I think myself and many others, were expecting much more. But hey, if you enjoyed Gridlock, as I did, then you'll still wanna check this out. Just don't set your standards TOO high.