The Field
Now You Exist
Studio Barnhus
Axel Willner’s first record as The Field, 2007’s From Here We Go Sublime, was a high-water mark for a certain strain of late-’00s dance music that was being passed around by indie kids. Willner, along with fellow practitioners like Pantha du Prince, Gui Boratto and the then-upstart Innervisions crew, was blending minimal, loop-based techno and the sort of star-searching melodies that are primed for soundtracking pensive bus journeys home (ideally in the rain after a break-up).
For me, this music is deeply personal. At the risk of dating myself, 2007 was also the year I graduated high school, moved to Europe, took my first pill and started getting serious about dance music (undoubtedly because Panda Bear was namechecking Basic Channel at the time). Arriving in the middle of that transformation was From Here We Go Sublime, which holds a special place in my pantheon of crossover records. It’s a classic that underlined how much emotion you could build into loops that seemed like they could last forever.
Listening to Willner’s newest EP, Now You Exist, I was immediately transported right back to that time. When the hi-hat and kicks slipped into place underneath the hazy wash of pads on “In Our Dreams,” I felt like I was time traveling into some sepia-washed Polaroid I’d found in my parent’s basement. This is a shift for Willner. On 2016’s The Follower, he got a bit tougher, crafting some serious techno tunes that still had his delicate touch, but were designed for big rooms (preferably during the softer hours of sunrise). Now You Exist, on the other hand, is more in line with his earlier work.
“333 706” and “Hey Baby” offer a cumulative 17 minutes of teary-eyed ecstasy, as both tracks are built around gently shifting chords that have been pushed to their limit of poignancy. (Of the two, “Hey Baby” is a little bit more fun, thanks to its slightly freer drum programming and the occasional sunburst of a 303.) But the record’s best track is “Another Day,” where Willner crafts a chunky hip-hop break with a woodblock and also adds a guitar riff into the mix. What results reminds me of a cross between Bibio’s timeless “Lover’s Carving” and the work of Michael Lückner.
We’ve had plenty of ’00s revivalism over the past few years, but while artists like Tiga and even young upstarts like FCUKERS are mining the neon glamor of electroclash and the party-rocking rawness of the early music blogosphere, perhaps Now You Exist is a sign that more music in the vein of The Field will soon be back in circulation. I, for one, would be happy to see that.
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