EP Review: Inmost - ‘Cloudfish’.
Inmost is a collaborative effort between Josh Croft of Aux Verba and Bailey Greer of Greed. They met about three years ago and have been releasing D’n’b and chilled bass together ever since. Inmost was an experiment for the duo to explore outside of their own comfort zones, which for Josh, lie with angsty teenage rock and a recently-found love for drum and bass, whereas Bailey is heavily influenced by garage. As a result of this fusion, I present to you, their debut EP, Cloudfish.
One thing about this genre of music that took me a while to get my head around is that it’s not something that you would ever want to go see live, and you never will. This is exclusively digital, it’s chilled bass, it’s not built to distract you, and all it asks of you is the occasional head-bob while it gently guides your focus elsewhere. The over-paced drums and sub driven, stop-start bass lines throughout the EP preserve a contrasting yet, comfortable ambiance that carries you right to the very last moment of the EP, with some turns along the way.
‘In thought’ exhibits Josh Croft’s acoustic influences that I am already acquainted with, it’s driven by a reversed guitar loop that merges together so symphonically and really sets the scene for the EP, whilst appealing to folk and electronic tastes alike. I think the genius elicited throughout this EP lies in the intricate details that create subtle but truly effective changes throughout the tracks. One example of such a manipulated detail is found at the 2-minute mark of Horizons, where the high-hat and tight snare is removed, isolating the bass line to augment and evolve; creating an open space for the drums to be reintroduced at 2:40.
The second track, ‘Cloudfish’, takes the responsibility for the EP as they’ve titled it after the track. With that in mind, I actually consider it my least favourite of the four. It has a similarly spacey intro to the outro of the track prior, suggesting that all the build and clarity previously demonstrated is going to leave a trace on the all-important ‘Cloudfish’, however I was left disappointed. The octave-dropped vocals at 1:10 are rather jarring, the prominent synthed notes have far more potential than what they’re given and not much else happens, so rather frankly, the EP’s namesake does not compliment it.
The final track, ‘What it is’ is the icing on the cake, that’s what it is. It showcases the duo’s playfulness, and takes a step-up to something with just the right amount of excitement that this genre can handle. At 3:20, old-school cuts and shapes are playfully flung in, steering this operation into a hard-hitting encounter with drum and bass, almost as a way of saying “if we wanted to blow your mind, we could”, but that’s not what this project is about, and as much as I would love that track to hit the roof and beyond, it dwindles away, leaving me hopelessly begging for more.
https://soundcloud.com/inmostdnb