The opening soundscape of this track is a special one, mainly because of its contrast. Soothing, ethereal. At the same time it’s suspenseful, energetic. The latter descriptions are mainly due to the background percussion sounds and the very robust toms. They are small indicators of what is to come at the 1:50 mark. It’s not a very rough track per-sé. It keeps its chill, hip-hoppy vibe non obstante the crisp and powerful bass. There’s lots of interesting material going on in the sides. In the midst of all this you can spot a detuned, funky ‘Fawhump’ that, to me, is the highlight of the track.

Give these guys a circuit bent Speak&Spell and you’ve got an intro that you can only respect. There’s a lot of crackling and delays involved, but they couldn’t prepare me for the actual impact of the drop. I feel like this is what it sounds like if borders would be conquered by high-grade hospital equipment. I know I need some after this review. The punch is not in the snare, like with many other half-time tracks. It’s in the bass sound itself. I can’t express how much I appreciate this choice. It makes for a very centralised, ‘wholesome’ (how I detest that word, but I just can’t…) experience. DFNKT and GEMO knew where they had to put their money and they succeeded with flying colours.

Damn, I’ve used the word 'Ethereal' in another track. But that’s fine, I wouldn’t really call this track 'Ethereal'. There’s clarity and confusion in this one. The clear snare makes for a fine anchor-point around which all sorts of entities are able to form and distort themselves. The bass burrows itself deep underneath countless layers of interesting percussion and sound effects. There’s a lot of movement in the high end as well. It’s a track where you will discover new and interesting soundscapes months after you’ve first listened to it. Shout out to my favorite sound on this track; the fleeing robocritter at 2:28.

This track tells a story. A story befitting its title nonetheless. Starting out with a very smooth, sweet, almost melodramatic piano piece. Slowly but surely it’s rough edges are starting to show. Deep strings are added, an electronic guitar, and just when you expect the full orchestra to join in, the track implodes. You are left with bells and a therapeutic conversation about suicide, whilst being introduced to the soundscape of the main act. It’s a more melodic track than most you hear, with a very glitch-hop-esque undertone. The beautiful opening soundscape does seep through every now and again, but the protagonist of the track is the strangely panned, burrowing bassline which sounds like it’s eating itself from the inside. Fitting, for the final stage of depression.

I wasn’t expecting juke in this compilation but it’s a pleasant surprise. It wouldn’t be VALE if it didn’t have some admirable sound design though. The switch at 1:15, and, more importantly 2:30 completely took me by surprise, and because of that it’s one of my favorite musical moments of the track collection. At 155 bpm the track has a variety of uses and will surely push a 140 set in a faster paced direction, or will be a very interesting variegation during a 170+ set.