The Gentleman Losers: Dustland

Still relatively unknown in the world of music, the two Finnish brothers that form The Gentlemen Losers are honestly masters at their craft.

Choosing the unsettled ground of electronic, ambient and instrumental, we were truthfully expecting a CD full of the tired normality that is becoming increasingly associated and expected from the aforementioned trio of genres. We've heard countless Northern European/Scandinavian bands recreate the generic and tired ambient arts, but never have they been so determined and as alternative as this. What was initially thought to be a mole-hill now seems rather like a mountain. 

Layered, textured sound folds and entwines with yawning strings and distant plucks; jingling, twinkling noises lace the atmospheric haze as floating hints of post-rock surface in structure and instrumental form. It's almost as if Six Parts Seven met Explosions In The Sky and Bibio in the middle of a country road at dawn and decided to jam with a few instruments and a handful of electronic equipment.

Always sparse but never silent, the music undulates and pounds quietly like a beating heart, swapping between the drastically withdrawn and the deep and pulsating. On Midnight Of The Garden Trees, the focal point is nothing but a mere muffled xylophone-like chime that's surrounded with Boards Of Canada-esque fuzz. Bleeps and blips are barely audible in the very distance as soothing, white-noise hypnotises and encapsulates. Couple this with a half-decent set of headphones and it easily has the ability to induce catatonia.

The record is all about the mood, the viscosity and the density of the music and it has to be said that together, the two brothers are damn good at creating all three. They manage to create an odd, comforting bubble that you cannot help but immerse yourself within. Just like us, you'll honestly find yourself zoning out of reality and into the warm, static, dusty glow that emanates from every inch of the record.

There's definitely times where the album takes a darker turn, granted, while none of it is particularly bright, it has to be said that Farandole is by the far one of the most ethereal and harrowing. It remains relatively normal for most of its five-and-a-half minute duration but just before the four minute mark, things turn a little strange. The almost Halloween melody and ghostly, other-worldy tone makes for fantastic listening and punctuates their ability to create one continuous stream of music and yet add different moods and creative ideals within a single track.

Manipulating sound and building sonic landscapes has been tried by many and only truly achieved by some. What The Gentlemen Losers have done is not only create a place for the listener to reside for its duration but also to transpose the leisurely connotation of its title into a grandiose sonic personification. The music truly builds a land of dust, filled with a haze that looms everywhere, impairing the vision but easing the senses.

While it may be frustrating that this album is guaranteed to fly resolutely under the radar of the public consciousness, the ones who do catch it will be richly rewarded.