Album Review: Satnamri - Delve

Not much is known about the band Satnamri. Wherever you go, whatever you try to research, all you can find is their genre and their Bandcamp, which is brimming with five releases, Delve being their latest, all packed full of experimental electronica. The band itself is unsigned, releases all of their albums for free download, and doesn't speak too much for itself, but nonetheless releases music that is both fantastically layered and interesting to listen to.

The first song, "Cold Sweat", starts itself on a trip-hoppy beat, with lots of reverb and synths all ablaze, a lower bass complementing a higher treble that echoes above all as a guitar would for a traditional band. More sporadic and syncopated noodling ensues as the beginning rhythm evolves into something far more complex, growing louder, harsher, and more powerful to combat the expanding soundscape that the treble synth creates, layering an ultimately uncontrolled, but inexplicably aesthetic sound in mind as the song dies away into softer eighth notes, and finally silence.

The sixth song on the album, "Morning", begins as what sounds like an intro into a trance song, with lower-mid hits rivaling slow quarter notes in the upper synth, with percussive bass noise in the background providing some basis of tempo and time. With mixtures of clean and distorted tones in the mids and upper portions of the song, a hopeful feel is established with the song, creating dissonant notes that somehow form chords that sound like bit-tunes, but at the same time yield much more complexity. The end of the song never truly reaches a conclusion, instead simply tapering off in a beautifully unrestrained moment.

The essence of Delve is near impossible to describe in one word. The tracks were noticeably less harsh than something like "Soap" off of Excerpt, (one 0f) Satnamri's releases from 2010, with much more tonality involved and less blatant noise. The tracks felt much more structured and deep, and I could tell there was much more of a shaping of tracks and a core sound that was adhered to. Either way, the album definitely felt like an experimental success, and I was impressed with how the band blended originally chaotic sounds into something meaningful and artistic. Since the prior release, Probe, was just set out to the public in April, I hope we'll be seeing from Satnamri again soon, because I can't wait to see where their sound goes from here.

You can stream and download the album from Satnamri's Bandcamp.

Track Listing:

1) Cold Sweat
2) Night
3) Sight
4) Choose
5) Minutes Left
6) Morning
7) River Will Get You
8) Dense