R.A.N. | Şeb-i Yelda
Karlrecords (12″/DL)

Berlin-based Turkish artist Hüma Utku, better known as R.A.N. (short for Roads at Night) releases her first recording since 2015 with a four track 12″ EP, Şeb-i Yelda – and it opens with the title track. A disgorged drone roams freely, and its bloated mane crisscrosses through the entire sound space in bulky air-infused layers.  The atmosphere initially finds equity between the ambient and the industrial. Here and there its encrusted with a sparse cragged percussive effect until a beat is formed, and you suddenly start to experience why this is a crystal clear 12″ rather than another format. Utku adds something akin to a high-hat and other beat-adjacent rhythms, all the while a mysterious discord on traditional musics of the Middle East emerge, but done with restraint in the underbelly of an otherwise funky exterior.  The track concludes with something akin to…