J Colleran: Gardenia review – former Mmoths man goes all out ambient

Gardenia
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Artist: J Colleran
Genre: Electronic
Label: Because Music

Jack Colleran, a teenage producer from Newbridge, previously released music as Mmoths. Now, he's ditching that moniker and moving up a division with Because Music, the indie label with headquarters in London and  Paris and home to Christina and the Queens, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Ed Banger.

Here Colleran pursues a more ambient direction than his initial electronic pop forays. The results on Gardenia, which is also the name of a recent Iggy Pop single, are interesting but mixed, and bring little by way of true originality to the table.

It weighs in at only 28 minutes and 44 seconds, which is slight for a genre noted for its expansive length. The Kildare man, a classical musician since the age of five, expertly arranges strings and pianos into a lush soundscape, but it all sounds somewhat cluttered and lacks the nuances of the very best ground-breaking electronica, as well as ploughing a very similar furrow to the 2001 Aphex Twin double album Drukqs.

The single bERA and closing track, Granu, are pleasing highlights, and Gardenia is a very pleasant listen, but Colleran hasn't made his ambient masterpiece just yet.