Infra
Mailros
Oscilla Sound
There’s nothing wrong with ambient music that sounds like a big smudgy blur—or a little smudgy blur, for that matter—but there’s something invigorating about artists who make a point to infuse the genre with a palpable sense of humanity. Infra is one such artist, and on the new Mailros EP, the UK producer has crafted a compellingly intimate collection of what might be described as deconstructed pop songs. Then again, “deconstructed” might be too strong of a word, as Infra appears less interested in breaking down formalized structures and more interested in simply reveling in a good old-fashioned slow burn.
With its tranquil pastures, Mailros—the title is the Old Welsh variant of Melrose, the Scottish border town where Infra was raised—does borrow from the more contemplative corners of new age. Yet it’s the record’s noodling guitar passages and tenderly sung vocals—which are ultimately closer to tones than intelligible words—that most directly provide that aforementioned human element. The standout “Aiira” sounds like a long-lost Talk Talk cut, while the chunky bassline of “Soon” is accompanied by what could easily mistaken for pitched-down snippets of Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan. Infra, it seems, is a sneakily versatile figure, and on “Minty,” their reverb-glazed, half-croaked mutterings blithely float their way through a field of celestial dream pop.
Much of Mailros is characterized by a similar sense of weightlessness. Some of that can definitely be attributed to the absence of drums, but on a more fundamental level, it comes down to Infra’s penchant for rumination. On opening number “On the iron steps,” every sound—the crunching static, the softly strummed guitars, the emotive, almost woeful vocalizations—is given the space not just just exist, but brightly shine, and that pattern repeats on “Rearrange me,” even as the guitars are swapped out for warbling synths and even more crackling static. In a time of content overload and microscopic attention spans, there’s something powerful about slowing down and reveling in the details, and by the time that the EP comes to an end with the gentle scrapes and the sweetly alien voices of “Crocus,” listeners are bound to find themselves wishing they had more time to bask in Infra’s delicate glow.