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Aug 08, 2016 Web Exclusive By Will Moss

As band-formation stories go, nonkeen have one of the most quaint. While many bands formed in their school days, few can say they have been an item since elementary school. Fewer still can claim that they made music together at that age whilst navigating the politics of band members residing on either side of the Berlin Wall. Nevertheless, the trio of Nils Frahm, Sepp Singwald, and Frederic Gmeiner have maintained a musical relationship well into their 20s and are now releasing their second full-length, Oddments of the Gamble.

Oddments of the Gamble consists of tracks that through the luck of a coin toss didn’t make it on to last year’s debut record, The Gamble. As to be expected then, the musical direction of this album doesn’t diverge from the tape-heavy, field-recording based style nonkeen have established for themselves previously. This is all well and good and makes for a solid record, but the album highlight lies where the formula changes somewhat—“Diving Platform” is a 6-minute masterstroke that falls somewhere between Moby and Boards of Canada. It shimmers in a hazy early-morning light that transports the listener somewhere else, somewhere better, entirely. It gives a tantalizing glimpse of where nonkeen could head to next. (www.nonkeen.com)

Author rating: 7/10