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For its lack of rush-inducing highs and novel sounds, the album is immensely pleasurable, with fleet keyboard vamps and percussive effects that stab and flick ricocheting off pliant, bounding basslines.
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While it's pleasing to see Ripatti further hone his familiar sound, I can't help but prefer the alchemy of the new: The best moments on Convivial transpose that unmistakable air of aching longing onto a broader, less predictable sonic palette.
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Even amidst his best constructions, Ripatti is never afraid to take a backseat or ride in tandem with his guests. His ear is perfectly tuned for the tension and release of techno-pop, sly to the timing needed to achieve his ends.
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each of Convivial's nine tracks unfolds gradually--only one clocks in at under six minutes--not one moment is wasted.
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On his fourth album, Luomo (a.k.a. Sasu Ripatti, the Finnish electronic minimalist who also records as Vladislav Delay) stays true to the course he began with 2000's "Vocalcity."
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It’d be hard to be disappointed with Convivial, however. It’s not necessarily an immediate listen; it took a few spins before the leaps Ripatti has made started seriously to sink in. But it’s the strongest thing he’s done, either as Luomo or under his Uusitalo or Vladislav Delay guises.
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Ripatti has extended himself beyond what reticence he may typically exhibit: his generosity and, yes, conviviality have birthed another notch in an already remarkable oeuvre.
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The WireThe elegantly bruised production is so captivating that I'm left longing for Ripatti to once again sink the vocals intot he subliminal and the sublime, as he did on "Vocalcity." [Nov 2008, p.66]
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Convivial is the closest Ripatti has inched toward making something that would fit in with the more outrageous and flamboyantly mainstream house productions that dominate charts and hip clubs these days, and at the same time still very heady, engaging music.
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With every track clocking in at about seven minutes, Convivial may fulfill not only the needs of the insatiable dancefloor, but the wants of those looking for relief of daily life's mundanities.
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These tricks crop up throughout the album--sly moves familiar to house fans are retrofitted to a pop framework, and the result is an entirely new (and very livable) structure