The debut album under the name Cloudc from Denmark’s Nick Arikson (who also records as Slicepad) is a bit of a stretch. Constructed from simple, soft house beats and floating snippets of voices, tweaked in real time, elicits easy comparisons to Leftfield, Echaskech, and even Underworld, but they’re a little undercooked to hit quite the same level as those three electronic giants. The fact this EP flows together flawlessly through changing sounds that work with one another is a testament to Nick’s ear and budding skills.
It’s just that the sounds are often not enough to maintain interest for the duration, and his melodic progression too stiff to lift the repetitiveness of the final product to a realm of minimal techno gold. He has some good ideas, but he rests, going back and forth between them instead of pushing on to something greater. I wouldn’t walk away if I heard this spinning at a festival stage, and apparently much if not all of this eponymous debut was recorded live, but it needs a little more work to achieve something great for the home listener.