After releasing mainly 12s and EPs so far, Austrian label Affine Records presents its first artist long player. Based in Vienna, producer and musician Zanshin covers a broad, diverse and at the same time homogenous range of crafty electronics and playful synthesis based structures and beats, sound research with balls. While his recently released “The Humdrum Conundrum EP“ also touched dance floor terrain and had tinges of pop oriented vocals, this album is an ode to the freedom of not getting caught between two stools. It sounds as if Autechre and Dimlite are trying to melt Toblerone in the CERN particle generator in order to muffle Miles Davis' trumpet with toffee quarks, the resulting wormhole sucking Burial, Plaid and Supersilent on the back of a Tortoise right into a subterrenean Monolake at the foot of the Eiger north face. Zanshin regards himself as a border crosser, working ingeniously with reminiscences of Dubstep and Electronica, interweaving heavy hip hop beats with filligree field recordings, complex harmonies and emotional depth - as if all components were elegantly fragmented on a microscopic level and reassembled by nanobots. Once its musical riddles are deciphered, this album leaves you with a more than lasting impression. Decoding on first listening would be way too easy, right? So Zanshin makes a purposeful mess of his influences in a way that may induce aural dizzyness and vertigo-go-gadgetto. A merry-go-round for grown-up ears. All the while remaining true to his own characteristic style and trademark sound aesthetics, knotting a magic carpet of massive and precise arrangements, drawing influences from UK Electro luminaries, wild Jazz-Funk of the early 70ies up to the eclectic approach of 90ies Post-Rock bands, and presto, Brainfuckdisco at its best. A picture puzzle made of cloudy panorama frescoes slowly evolving into lead glass windows as to suddenly pull colourful and heavyweight beat thunderstorms out of a panama hat in a parallel universe on twinkle-toes; et voilá: Zanshin – "Rain Are In Clouds".