Love Like Ice: MPEG_7’s (Formerly Athena) Diamond True

I had to turn my apartment heater on for the first time Sunday evening, which means winter is probably still a month away for people with a normal tolerance to colder weather. Yet in preparation (and, well, for me now, I guess), producer MPEG_& (formerly known as Athena) has a new three-song album called Diamond True that the artist asks you “please enjoy to cold winter.” Makes sense, as two of the three songs here are slowly unfolding numbers clocking in at over seven minutes, and which just as importantly are in no rush to get anywhere. Centerpiece “Tragic Girl” highlights not only the glacial pace of Diamond True, but also the icy romanticism lurking in the center of MPEG_7’s creations, with fragile piano notes gliding alongside mid-tempo beats and fever-dream synthesizers, samples of (anime?) voices appearing here and there to up the melancholy piling up. Like previous emotional knockouts, the songs here establish a mood and slowly up the intensity…closer “Timidity Magi” stretches over 10 minutes and 30 seconds, but stays compelling throughout. Bundle up with it this winter. Get it here, or listen below.