I think this release tries too hard to be something special in its simplicity. Not too many elements, but loud hihats and pads to create a collage of sorts. This had the makings of something good, but it never actually becomes good. In the end, you are left unsatisfied with a sound that didn't seem to do anything, just run in circles. The music seems pointless, as if there is no message in it besides just making noise that's a little harmonic. To picture what this track sounds like, take any IDM track, and take away all the hooks, samples, and leave it bare. You get some strange sounding song that's not very enthralling and doesn't seem to have a direction. If you want some good Nathan Fake, see James Holden's mix of The Sky Was Pink (single release).

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Whereas I think "Drowning In A Sea Of Love" is quite lovely, I can't help but feel like Nathan Fake desperately tries to sound like M83. "Charlie's House" and "Superpositions" sound a lot like tracks from "Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts", "Long Sunny" could easily be an outtake from "M83", self-titled debut album, and "Bawsey" resembles one of the interludes from "Before The Dawn Heals Us".

The album structure itself reminds me a lot of M83's debut album - walls of noise followed by beatless ambient soundscapes. Sad tracks followed by happy ones. All in quite unexpected order.

Being a big fan of M83, I quite liked this album, because style-wise it's quite similar. But I just feel that they are able to produce same type of material with more depth and emotion. It's quite enjoyable nonetheless.

I found that this release was almost as dissapointing as it was anticipated. I really enjoyed Outhouse; along with Holden's A Break In the Clouds, this album helped shape the evolving sound of Border Community which I really enjoy. The Sky Was Pink is a good album, but the Holden Remix dominates the album. When Silent Night came out, I really started to question how serious he was with his productions. They may be unique, but for me they do nothing to invoke my interest. Haven't lost all faith in the man, but he really is due up for a good rebound album.

Whereas I think this album is really lovely, I can't help but feel like I'm listening to another M83 album. Style-wise, a lot of tracks (for example, "Charlie's House", "Superpositions" and especially "Long Sunny") sound very similar to tracks from M83's albums "M83" and "Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts".
Otherwise, I must say this album is pretty good - really nicely crafted and emotional melodies and top notch production.

I'm trying to find some satisfactory combination of words to describe "Drowning in a Sea of Love", Nathan Fake's debut full length album released yesterday on the Border Community label, but I suspect my mission may be doomed even before I start. And it's not because I don't know what to make of the music; it is because there is such a clarity to the music that I understand it in a part of myself where words are of no use, & serve only to obscure and complicate.

"Drowning..." is an album that communicates directly on an emotional level, with both the simplicity of an old, battered music box and the raw power of a full symphonic orchestra. And though it is both electronic and full of emotion, I found it to be unlike other electronic music of that sort, which are oftentimes manipulative to the point of a kind of emotional violence. Instead of trying to steer listeners to a particular destination, Fake's music simply exists unto itself. But such is the beauty of "Drowning..." that it is like a glass which is overflowing, saturating everything around it in the process.

"Drowning..." is the soundtrack to some of the happiest dreams you've ever had... It is lullabies of innocence and wonder which existed before memory...

A part of me wishes that I understood the techniques Fake is using to create this sound. There is something unusual and haunting about the kinds of chords he is using, as if they have been twisted and are just Barely in harmony (or at least this is what it feels like is going on, to my musically uneducated self). But another part of me knows that sometimes it is just best to be left ignorant, so that we can still stand in awe of the almighty and powerful Oz.

I can't remember hearing a music that was both so simple and yet so powerfully moving since Moby's early ambient tracks off of "Everything Is Wrong". "Drowning..." doesn't really sound anything like that, but that's what it reminds me of anyway, deep down in that place where words get in the way.