The Elegant Introspection Of Djrum’s Under Tangled Silence
Riya Hollings
The liner notes for Djrum’s latest record, Under Tangled Silence, emphasize that the artist, born Felix Manuel, was a child prodigy. Cynically, I took this as a PR humblebrag before pressing play. But the swirling piano that unravels on opener “A Tune For Us” immediately allows this angle to become vital. The album — issued by fabric’s Houndstooth label — is more in line with the swirling avant-garde legacy of Luaka Bop than Hyperdub’s austere dread.
As the sole employee of a record store, I spend much of my day questioning strangers about their headphone habits. One answer keeps surfacing that takes me aback: Djrum. As I pick his brain on a last minute call, Manuel echoes my astonishment that Djrum is surmounting a longstanding niche — he even confesses to an up-front assumption that Under Tangled Silence might have been too nerdy for a subset of pre-existing listeners. These 11 cuts merge the broken pulse of IDM with cinematic atmosphere, demanding patience and a knowledge of Manuel’s legacy.
My perplexity at the rise of Djrum also stems from the fact that Manuel is hardly a newcomer to the electronic space. He emerged at the dawn of the 2010s, rolling out melodic post-dubstep, in the vein of Synkro and Pariah, on imprints including 2nd Drop Records, On The Edge, and Smokin Sesions. In the years to come, Manuel’s profile rose from a low simmer to a steadier boil. By last summer, Djrum’s name was finally appearing in large font on bills at world class festivals ranging from Dekmantel to Sustain-Release. The consensus come autumn was that those three-turntable Djrum sets landed in technically mind boggling and frenetic territory. A few months later, Manuel dropped the persistent and flute-centric full-length Meaning’s Edge, which marked another unignorable level up for Djrum.
Unlike Meaning’s Edge, Under Tangled Silence is silky and nurturing. At points, the record seems to disintegrate like a golden liquid, mirroring the tragic technological failure that shaped it. In the midst of COVID lockdowns, one of Manuel’s hard drives melted due to an overheated power supply, destroying the original sketches for Under Tangled Silence along with it. The logistical inconvenience and psychological toll coupled in painful, albeit ultimately inspiring ways for Manuel, as he reconstructed lost pieces. He came to approach the disaster as a lesson in letting go and an opportunity to make things better the second time around. “It’s tricky for me, because the album is not like the album I intended to write. It’s the album I ended up writing,” Manuel reflects. “I didn’t plan it. It’s not the album that I had in my head, but that’s okay. I just went with the flow and the flow took me into tricky places. But I got there in the end, so I’m happy with it.”
When asked how he juggles identities as a composer and DJ, Manuel’s response suggests a measured yet textured relationship with duality. “I think it’s always been a bit tricky for me, balancing,” he muses. “I think that perhaps I’ve had different fans for one and different fans for another. For me, it comes very naturally. If I’m in a club, I want a certain thing. But then, if I’m at home, I’m in a very different state of mind. When I’m in the studio, I’m in this different state of mind and I’m very focused on what I’m doing. I want things to be complex and subtle.” Manuel’s process is united by a quest for contrast in the booth and the DAW.
Leaning into a fluid, electro-acoustic palette, Under Tangled Silence finds human touch, manipulated samples of handmade instruments, and Ableton stock plugins seamlessly bleeding into one. “My general way of working, I try to unify organic and acoustic sounds with electronic sounds and strike a balance,” Manuel says. On no other Djrum record has this equilibrium been struck more effectively than Under Tangled Silence, which weaves timbres from harp, mbira, and cello — the latter performed by enduring creative partner Zosia Jagodzinska — to sophisticated ends. Though club-ready snippets are sparse, Manuel poured over polyrhythms and grids as he conceptualized Under Tangled Silence. Ruminative track names such as “Three Foxes Chasing Each Other,” “Sycamore,” and “Galaxy In Silence” cement that Manuel is embracing introspection here. When asked what themes he hoped to convey through these instrumentals, Manuel concludes that he was aiming to channel layered, pensive emotions he doesn’t quite have words to pinpoint.
The title Under Tangled Silence alludes to a theory that the universe is infinitely large and also infinitely small. “I thought that’s interesting to apply to silence,” Manuel ponders. “I’m very influenced by John Cage, so silence is, in part, a reference to him and his work around silence — or the lack of it. I think that’s my point, really. I was like, ‘Okay, if you can have a galaxy in a raindrop, you can have a galaxy in a grain of dust, and, in fact, you can have a galaxy in silence as well.’ This idea that something as small as silence can actually be huge and have immense detail, and silence is not nothing — it’s just very small. There’s actually a lot happening within silence.” Translating philosophical queries into staggering sound, the celestial and fathomless Under Tangled Silence is deafening in its maturity.
PEAK TIME
Tracey - "Sex life"
AD 93 is responsible for putting Overmono on the map, but it is rare that the stellar London label platforms a bonafide banger. The new self-titled EP from mysterious UK collective Tracey traverses queasy R&B, trip-hop, art pop, and dubstep, darting between catchiness and complexity. The most memorable cut is the opener “Sex life,” which features a slick guest verse from grime veteran Riko Dan. Before a syncopated voice can finish calmly stating the sentence, “All I wanna do is fuck,” the song has burst into a trap-meets-Jersey club firestorm. If the Dare had hit his stride jacking “The Harlem Shake” instead of LCD Soundsystem, I assume it would play like “Sex life.”
Priori - "Silicate Tusks (Loidis Reconfiguration)"
Francis Latrielle and Brian Leeds share ears for deceptively nuanced dance music. Montréal-based Latrielle co-founded the label NAFF; produces sonorous techno as Priori; and has been part of projects including ANF, Healion, Jump Source, and more. A cornerstone of the ambient dub revival, Philadelphia-based Leeds runs the imprint West Mineral Ltd. and has flirted with a range of aliases over the years — most notably Huerco S. On a pair of Priori remixes, Leeds keeps the hype going for his buzzy Loidis persona, which was responsible for last year’s minimal opus One Day. Leeds’ spin on “Silicate Tusks” — which initially appeared on the 2024 Priori full-length This but More — underlines the original’s heavenly pads with microhouse drums and aqueous aural design. It calls to mind worn glitter floating on spa water.
FOREIGNER - "Land One"
The artists signed to Livity Sound are typically three steps ahead of the curve, delivering skittering bass tracks with colorful facades. But FOREIGNER’s new EP, Visible, feels caked in a film of two-decade-old dust. These four cuts arrive as a fresh outlet for Willis Anne, a Melbourne-based hardware wiz with roots in Europe. He has put out eponymous material on labels including Shall Not Fade and Tresor, in addition to founding the imprint and event series LAN. Visible highlight “Land One” is surprisingly straightforward, with its retro Midwestern hues and loping gait. Anne aims to use FOREIGNER as a way to explore themes of transience and place, but the dreaminess of “Land One” strikes me as settled.
Jackson Ryland - "Afterlife Theories"
Born and raised in Northern Virginia, I can say with certainty that I do not hail from a hotbed of dance music. Andrew Field-Pickering (aka Max D’s) Future Times label is one of the only mediums broadcasting great electronic records from the heart of the governmental swamp. Over a year after Future Times put out its last release, Dolo Percussion’s DOLO 6, the imprint has resurfaced with Hydraplane — a gritty EP from seasoned DC DJ and producer Jackson Ryland, who collaborates with Field-Pickering in the duo Superabundance. “Afterlife Theories” concludes Hydraplane with a crackly, bounding beat and feverish melodies. This is a hissy, upper-mid-tempo standout, teeming with fuzzy propulsion.
Verraco - "Total"
Restraint is not the name of the game for JP López, whose Verraco alias is at the core of a movement being somewhat reductively pigeonholed as “Latin club.” The Colombian producer and Tra Tra Trax co-manager released the most visceral electronic breakout of last year, Breathe… Godspeed, on Batu’s Timedance label, which has now led to a deal with XL Recordings. López’s first EP for the influential imprint, Basic Maneuvers, is just as uncompromising as the material that preceded it; its explosive peaks and churning drops seem ripped out of a hypothetical Monster Energy ad. This boisterousness defines “Total,” which offsets pearly pads, demonic voice chops, and a snarling rhythm section. It is unflinching and discombobulating, suggesting that, with Verraco popping up on USBs worldwide, this summer’s bustling dance floors are poised to be unhinged.
Azu Tiwaline & Cinna Peyghamy - "Chrome Fever"
From 2021 onward, Berghain’s Ostgut Ton label lay dormant. The imprint previously acted as a platform for residents at the Berlin institution to put out tracks that reinforced the club’s penchant for leather clad dance music — though Barker and Martyn served as amorphous outliers. Ostgut Ton has now returned from the shadows with the compilation Klubnacht, which shares a title with Berghain’s iconic weekender party. Much of the two hour record upholds hypnotic German tradition, thanks to contributions from usual suspects including Efdemin, Altinbas, and Cinthie. But the most memorable cuts on Klubnacht are those that challenge boundaries, like Azu Tiwaline and Cinna Peyghamy’s “Chrome Fever.” Centered on a four-on-the-floor kick, Tunisia-rooted Tiwaline and French-Iranian Peyghamy find ways to imbue the familiar thump of techno with traces of folk from the Middle East and North Africa. Across the six moody minutes of “Chrome Fever,” razory atonal whirrs and polyrhythmic low end cultivate the consistency of decaying marble.
Pangaea - "ManÃa"
Kevin McAuley has stayed relatively quiet in the wake of 2023’s Pangaea album Changing Channels. Yet the London-based Hessle Audio co-founder is navigating 2025 with grace. His latest single, “ManÃa,” arrives just a few months after the fabric Originals-issued 12-inch split with Leonce, Dusted / Stuck. “ManÃa” continues Pangaea’s recent streak of gently swung tech house sequencing, cell phone bleep leads, and metallic basslines, complimented by a sing-songy vocal hook delivered in Spanish by rising artist Jazz Alonso. While there’s no Pangaea full-length in sight, “ManÃa” gives us an infectious distraction for the moment.
Impérieux - "Saat"
Following an uncharacteristically sleepy 2024, it is looking like a Hessle Audio summer. On top of Pangaea’s “ManÃa” one-off, the titanic UK label has issued an EP from Impérieux, Fena. The artist born Alper Durmush honors his heritage in Turkey, Greece, and Bulgaria, impacting a feisty, percussive formula. On “Saat,” insistent hand claps hover over resonant offbeat kicks, mimicking an inverted dembow lurch. It escalates to a wonky climax of pads and disembodied speech that provoke a cosmic head rush.
Daphni - "Sad Piano House"
Dan Snaith’s early days producing as Caribou and Daphni were marked by earnestness and introversion. But, as he has ascended to unexpected superstardom in his late 40s, Snaith has become increasingly irreverent. The flippant title of the latest Daphni single, “Sad Piano House,” says it all. The track sparked as Snaith reimagined elements from the sophisticated 2022 Cherry outtake “Cloudy.” The outcome evokes what might happen if someone placed a shuffling beat beneath a Nils Frahm composition. “Sad Piano House”‘s melancholy is more plaintive than it is dramatic, making it an essential tool for DJs looking to cater to our strange era without veering full doomer.
Shanti Celeste - "Thinking About You"
On her new full-length, Romance, Shanti Celeste has followed in Avalon Emerson’s footsteps and gone pop. The Bristol-based, Chilean-born DJ and Peach Discs label boss has always gravitated towards optimism. Aptly titled, Romance finds Celeste leaning into themes of — you guessed it — love, pivoting from zippy club tracks to bilingual, vocal-driven R&B that recalls Little Dragon. “Thinking About You” straddles both sides of the Celeste coin, carried by Korg M1 organ stabs, tech house drums, and Celeste’s sumptuous harmonies. “Thinking About You” is the output of a seasoned artist leaping from the solitude of the booth to the clearer light of a theatre stage.
THE AFTERS
