Phaeleh
Tides
Release Date: Jul 1, 2013
Genre(s): Electronic, Club/Dance
Record label: AFTERGLO
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Album Review: Tides by Phaeleh
Satisfactory, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 3.5
Bristol producer Phaeleh, aka Matt Preston, is a man concerned with atmosphere and texture over frenzied energy and uplift. His sound is very much in the lineage of esteemed Bristolian electronica like Massive Attack and Portishead, while tinged with a sense of foreboding portent and contemporary urban dread. Phaeleh’s second album proper, Tides, sees him taking his sound ever further down the path of ambient aural introspection.
Based on rating 6/10
Matt Preston is a classically trained musician from Bristol – that’s more than just a fun fact; these two autobiographical details are highly discernible in his work as Phaeleh. That he makes ambient/trip-hop records of course draws comparisons to Massive Attack and Portishead, but there are nods to the post-dubstep of Burial or Zomby and hints of Bonobo to be found as well. His second album Tides is a record that attempts to draw together many electronic influences under its urban ambience.
Based on rating 2/5
Bristol producer Phaeleh has always made post-club comedown music. His biggest tracks to date – 2010’s ‘Fallen Light’ and 2011’s ‘The Cold In You’ (both from albums of the same name) – were relaxed yet sparky night-bus shuffles. But now, two years since his last album, it seems that Matt Preston is just making beats to sit at home to.
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