Robin Snasen Rengard used to be in now-defunct Norwegian hardcore band Amulet, but you wouldn't know it from the deliberate delicacy of his solo electronic-based work as Snasen. "Failing Upwards" is the first and title track off Snasen's second EP, which unwinds even further along the path Rengard articulated for himself with his self-titled debut in 2011. The audio/ visual designer drops found percussive sounds-- a glass marble on wood, finger snaps-- around a vocal sample to produce an effect not unlike Andy Stott's "Numb". Rengard finds a structure and builds it to a brief, glitchy climax that breaks the song down to its disparate elements so naturally that you wonder if it ever existed in the first place.

[from the Failing Upwards EP; out 02/15/13 via Sellout!]