As one may expect from a confoundingly gifted photographer and graphic designer, Hansen's inviting sleeve imagery of an enticing sun sinking into what looks like expansive, cracked Argentinian salt flat coaxes the uninitiated into a world of flourishing subtlety filled with flickering sparks capable of igniting the most closeted, closed imagination imaginable. However as the internet continues to fizzle to the fuss and furore induced by M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, it's in danger of flinging away the opportunity to don Wayfarers and gaze into this most dumbstriking dawn. For Dive is something of a raunchy, pulsating reconfiguration of Boards Of Canada's The Campfire Headphase, the colourful glimmers and claustrophobic rhythms of Daydream recalling without ever defrauding '84 Pontiac Dream. Elsewhere, sturdy bass lines are prominent on opener A Walk and the segueing Hours, low-pitched thrum anchoring the oneiric. The processed sighing and susurrus of intermittent vocalist Jianda Johnson enhances without ever intruding, pleasantly humanising the crude drum machine workout of Dive and the rejuvenating serenity of Ascension. Imagine a spa that aimed to make you feel like the money you paid in place of failing to make you feel like a six-figure sum, and you're there in sonic format, cucumbers safeguarding eyes and eyelids, perfumed wafts breezing in one nostril and out t'other. Periodically all feels a little out at sea, abandoned without identifiable guitar line nor perceptible hook to cling to, although when one floats powerlessly, possessedly towards Adrift, one could be headed for raging waterfall and all faith would still be placed in Hansen.
Six gushing minutes that aurally resemble the swim to the illuminated end of the subaqueous tunnel, its acoustic ebb overwhelms as emotions brim and overfill, all sorts of sensations flushed from your tainted, impure system. By the time the spectacular, gusty Elegy sails into focus atop the crest of the horizon, you've already sunk stone-like into this introversive flow of surging splendour, ready for drowning.
