Scintilla is a set of seventeen pieces of glitch-based EDM/IDM that, while constructed well enough, don’t go much out of their way to break the mold. Smooth and often beautiful base work gets scoured by high-speed glitch in a very workable blend that, like a lot of offerings in this genre, suffers from sameness. The question as I listened became, what can you do without relying on the glitch? I hear the potential in the way the last forty seconds or so of “Tight Around Her Throat She Slips Away” quiets down and is allowed to coast directly into the short, more ambient “Like Snowflakes on My Fingers.”  The start of “Voiceless Whispers Flicker in the Shattered Mist” also makes a good start and really caught my attention as a track that had the potential to stand out. And then at the 1:20 mark it just gets smothered like so much of the rest. I found myself forwarding past songs after a short listen, looking for something that really makes itself known. My problem with Scintilla is that I can’t just sit down with it and listen. I get restless. When it comes up in a shuffle, it feels stronger. Make no mistake, there’s some gorgeous work in here, and taken in an isolated context, thinking only in terms of glitch, it’s very good. There’s a depth of emotion that’s consistent and strong and a velocity that’s often exhilarating. It just grows thin track after track. If your tastes run heavily toward this kind of music, Scintilla is a disc you need to dive into. For me, I’ll keep it around for shuffling purposes and quick doses of musical adrenaline.

Available from Tympanik Audio.