Release Date: 12 November 2021
Song Count: 14
Duration: 1 hour, 29 minutes, 2 seconds
Rating: 7.6/10
Description:
Song Count: 14
Duration: 1 hour, 29 minutes, 2 seconds
Rating: 7.6/10
Description:
Another rather long-awaited recommendation has come up, this time from a Sydney-based producer more well-known in alternative electronic music scenes, known by many names - Sewerslvt being one of them. This musical alias was active from 2017, creating atmospheric drum & bass music and sparking a revival for extremities in the genre previously thought to be long dead in relevance, until 2021, when the artist's long-term partner passed away, causing them to quit the project and later move onto newer endeavours. we had good times together, don't forget that is the final studio album released under the Sewerslvt name and acts as a dedication piece to this deceased partner, including track titles alluding to grief and mourning as well as a song, "her", written by her directly.
The norms of drum and bass in this album are taken to their limits in their use, as plenty of distortions, drum samples and switch-ups in the tones and rhythms within the tracks are prevalent. This then comes packaged along with heaps of digital noise emulating the sense of a certain thick fog permeating through the expressed emotions in the music, as well as rare trance music influences seeping in to represent moments of temporary, artificially induced euphoria, as is the case in "blissful overdose". Tracks are often more there to build onto a general image of what is being conveyed rather than standing as their own smaller pieces, leaning into the atmospheric nature of it all. All of this then hits its conclusion with a 17-minute long track titled "goodbye", a culmination of almost everything previously introduced in the album that is both a symbolic farewell to the individual being grieved for and, in a meta sense, a final sendoff to Sewerslvt's original audience.
An LP that tackles a difficult subject matter in a way that both breaks conventions and also aligns emotionally with its message and induced emotion, we had good times together, don't forget that is a fascinating and immersive piece that largely manages with ease to capture the complex inner workings of a devastated person going through personal loss in musical form, and to take in the listener into the experience as well. The authenticity behind the album and its intentions, as well as the simple fact that it marks the end of a project that shot up extreme drum & bass, jungle and further adjacent, formerly niche genres into the limelight of the internet, only further highlights the effectiveness of the music to be found here. I overall found myself quite impressed with this listen-through, and if anyone else who considers themselves a fan of drum & bass has just short of 90 minutes to immerse themselves into a deep musical experience, this one may certainly be a good choice.