After taking a nine-year hiatus early in the millennium, Markus Popp (aka Oval) has been pushing his craft into broader territories, moving away from his initial ambient glitch.
On Scis, his ninth full-length and first in four years, Popp continues to transform his digital sounds into brasher, louder and more playful beats. Over ten tracks and 46 minutes, the German musician interpolates two sonic themes; alien vibrations and clashing tempos, as demonstrated on LP highlights like the erratically rhythmic "Fluoresso" and the scattered beatific "Cozzmo."
Although Scis comes off slightly prescriptive in its layout (each track contains similar aural elements and fall squarely between four and five minutes in length), Markus nonetheless finds space to mix up the musical accessories, adding chopped female vocal samples on tracks like "Pushhh" and "Mikk."
Scis demonstrates that, 27 years into his recording career, Markus Popp is still managing to come off forward-thinking and forward-sounding.
