Album Artwork By: David Bywater

Article By: Cole Epley

Despite having been on the electronic scene for just over two years, Dominic Lalli (producer/saxophonist) and Jeremy Salken (drummer) give Big Gigantic an air of professional originality that takes some artists years to achieve. Their September 1 release of “A Place Behind the Moon,” the duo’s sophomore studio effort, continues to further their notoriety and place in the national electronic scene while reinforcing their acumen as artists and composers. This album is a true galactic voyage among death-defying bass crescendos, seamless transitions and characteristic sonic exuberance—an homage to their rudimental sound and persona. APBTM chronicles the sound which has made Big Gigantic the beastly machine that it has become as well as it illustrates the direction in which it’s headed.

If there’s one word to describe this album, it’s ‘restraint.’ Listeners will be thrilled to hear unblemished wobble and bass that hits harder than ever before throughout the piece, but the most salient characteristic of this gem is the way that it all seems to sneak up on you. In one of the rowdiest tracks, “Step Up,” an undeniably filthy bass gyration oozes its way into your ear canals and stealthily departs, only to come back again and again; if you get too caught up, you might even miss the saxophone slipping in the back door under the cover of a collective aura of reality-defying sonic rapture. The album itself is more than a mere compilation of new tracks—it’s a composition, one that reveals something new and previously unnoticed with every subsequent listen. APBTM drives a rigid bass vehicle into interstellar overdrive on standout tracks such as “High and Rising,” and “Cloud Nine,” while rounding out the spaces in between such heavy hitters with unique pieces like “Driftin” and “Breaking Point,” a smart and fresh close to the album.

APBTM is trademark Big Gigantic, but where the Boulder, Colo. duo shines with originality, it also evolves right before our very ears and brings the future of music to us in a time- and mind-bending production of precision synthetic and bass oscillations, smoother-than-glass saxophone work and syncopated percussion not for the faint of heart. Again, the restraint of saxophone and truncated bass throbs create a ravenous desire for more and more Big G. Every track is completely fresh and irresistible harmonies rise and fall like escalators in the depths of the sonic conscience.

Lalli and Salken have clearly cemented their reputations as purveyors of all things rowdy, and they obviously take Big G to bigger and badder proportions with this album. In places where APBTM is seemingly simple, a closer listen reveals oh-so-intricate layers of sheer sonic bliss which build themselves into titanic proportions without being pretentious. This is music that is so easy to fall into that it becomes difficult to tell where the music stops and the soul begins; perhaps that’s what makes it special. What you have here is the final product of two committed and talented artists—and a statement that tells us just how fun electronic music can be.