While it is rewarding to see electronic music flourishing in new directions this century, this growth brings a lot of overflow in tow. This is par for the course in any style of music, of course, but I feel that in electronic music’s maturing years, it may be a bit too early for such a girth of mediocrity. Cullen Miller’s Stolen Nature seems to be a microcosm of the genre as a whole: there is a lot of promise, but also some stagnation.

Sometimes electronic artists push too hard to incorporate a plethora of styles that have come before into their own manifestations of sound. Most of Stolen Nature sits awkwardly between dancy and experimental with its rhythms and diffusion of melody. For example, in “The Magus” the decay applied to the acoustic guitar is fabulously done, but is sadly buried in the background behind a rhythm that lacks definitive personality. In my mind, what would make these songs stick out would be to push the more experimental elements of sound construction further into the foreground, while retaining the worthy dub-like bass lines. On “Spore”, the clicks and glitches could be more prevalent, and the acid jazz-evoking saxophone could be removed altogether. It also sounds as though “Spore” travels nowhere and, instead, just sits as an unrecognizable bit of ephemera next to the speakers.

In contrast, “Curwen’s Saltes” is the highlight of the album. It features a Dune worm dub beat that slinks along with all its accompanying sounds, particularly a slow, milling about cello. Then it breaks into a drum‘n’bass break that begins out of place, but evolves into a nice transition. It’s a tachycardic run through a nightmare that quickly ends in a fit of sweat and wordless mutterings as you awake.

Regrettably, none of the rest of the album really impresses beyond a quick scan through some run of the mill dub beats that offer little melodic accompaniment worth mention. Even after several listens, I was left pining for Miller to evoke anything particular in my mind’s eye. Nothing sticks out, yet nothing is overly pedestrian; Stolen Nature is a mildly interesting record but nothing keep-worthy.

-Gabriel Bogart