Boston’s Weekly Dig (US)

Picture yourself sitting at home on a blisteringly bitter winter day, sipping a cup of your favorite tea. Now imagine sitting down with the mindset of being utterly ensconced in whatever form of artistic avenue of expression is near and dear to your heart. Everything is exactly conducive to creativity, yet you find yourself searching for a soundtrack to compliment your tranquil state of being. Last year, Dan Abrams, under his moniker Shuttle358, released the breathtakingly gorgeous Optimal.lp , which at its simplest, could be described as quite possibly one of the most complex yet peaceful bodies of ambient music released in the past few years. Now a year later, Abrams finally unveils Frame, a montage of blissful ethereal ambient soundscapes with crackles, pops, pings and numerous other suble nuances normally found in various other genres of intelligent dance music (idm) such as microsound. Abrams’ shift in sound and style, prompted by a desire to reach out to the microsound crowd, succeeded in that his music contains a rather innovative approach to incorporating microsound and ambient into one composition. While Frame may not be as shockingly brilliant from beginning to end as its predecessor, it still is a wonderful effort from the innovative 12k imprint. – craig kapilow