Review: Ricardo Donoso “As Iron Sharpens Iron, One Verse Sharpens Another”

25 Nov 2013 — Christopher Sabbath

Like all great trilogies, Brazilian producer Ricardo Donoso has saved his most thrilling dose of sound-sculpted delirium for last with the release of As Iron Sharpens Iron, One Verse Sharpens Another. The double EP, released previously as two separate vinyl 12” albums, rounds out Donoso’s sonic navigations through the darkened extremities of the uncharted frontier that began with 2011’s Progress Chance and 2012’s Assimilating the Shadow. As expected, this marvelous effort from Donoso finds our trance master locked tight in a cockpit of dream-swept revelations, as he brings his breathtaking expanses of bass-harnessed arpeggios and dub minimalism into a much sharper focus than ever before.

Over the course of eight tracks, Donoso’s fined-tuned assault on the brain sponges yields high levels of soothing resins and sedative equilibrium. From the moment the floodgates open with “Affirmation,” it’s clear that Donoso is zoomed in on the more hypnotic effects of his music, blanketing a lulling glow of synthesized swoosh with pops and pulses that skitter and disperse into the cranial cavities with a mind-numbing reflex. Both EPS blend wondrously into the next, with equal parts chill-out catatonia (“Diagonal Environment,” “The Child Primitive”) and tense, dub-squiggled dementia (“The Sphinx,” “The Redeemer”).

The album is available now for purchase both as a digital release and 12” format on Digitalis Recordings.