Dode is the seventh album by the eternally underrated
Karsten Pflum, a Danish electronic musician who began releasing playful drill'n'bass on Worm Interface in the early 2000s and has since explored territory ranging from dubstep to ambient. This album is inspired by Swedish role-playing game Draker och Demoner Expert, and is musically influenced by '80s synth pop, vocoder-heavy electro, and electronic funk. The album is considerably more sparse and relaxed than his frenetic, exciting early releases, but the melodies and beats are still intricately programmed and imaginative. "Vackra Inavlade" harks back to his past, with frantic drum'n'bass breakbeats juxtaposed with crystal-clear IDM melodies. "Dvärg Maskian" seems like his sideways attempt at a rubbery spy-theme groove, while "Skumögd" has fizzling bass that sounds subverted from his previous experiments with dubstep, along with dislocated hip-hop samples. The album ends with the eerie ten-minute ambient piece "Darwiches Inbjudan," which layers sparkling chimes over rolling drones, ending with a monologue by a grim-sounding Scandinavian narrator. The album shows that
Karsten Pflum has matured greatly since his first recordings, yet he has never sacrificed his sense of adventure and exploration. ~ Paul Simpson