‘Days and Nights’ continues the good form of Behdad Nejatbakhshe’s 2018 venture Given By Nature, borrowing its overall shape to create something poignant and well-rehearsed.
From the cover, you might expect the new track to follow on from the previous album, stylistically speaking. And yet, despite the confidence with which Nejatbakhshe maintains and builds his identity, ‘Days and Nights’ takes the time to say something slightly different.
They say that if you say something quietly, people will listen harder. This is a lie, but the people still paying attention will notice a softer, more muted tone to the track. Spotify cites Persian influences running through the artist’s discography, which comes through here as poise and warmth. The song feels inviting, awake to itself, feels as though it’s forever on the brink of a liquid D&B drop. And yet it sits, careful, deliberate, avoiding the temptation to stagger into anything heavy-handed or too easy.
Does ‘Days and Nights’ manage to say anything different, though? Well, yes and no. Where French electronic music has, in recent years, become in a sense typecast, glossy and pastel-coloured, Uppermost’s latest feels quietly familiar, understated, a weakness of strength that leaves final judgment, as per, with the listener.
Words by James Reynolds
@JimReynoldsUK