About Ishmael Ensemble's promising second album (
Visions Of Light, 2021)among other things, Muziekweb wrote that "as a whole it still sounded a bit too fragmentary. Thatshortcoming has not been remedied on this successor. Especially in the first half of Rituals thesongs sound like clockwork, but also like they were made by totally different bands. It goesfrom dark electronica (C'mon), via jazzy
… trip-hop (Blinded, beautifully sung byHolysseus Fly) and dreamy shoegaze à la M83 (Dust) to the ambient-with-Phil-Collins-drums of Cold Light (which wasn't given the working title "Enya Intro" for nothing). Thatsaxophonist/dj/producer/bandleader Pete Cunningham himself nevertheless has an idea of whatexactly what an IE song is, is evident from his analysis on juno.co.uk: 'Blinded sounds very much likean Ishmael Ensemble tune; solid drums as a prelude to a beautiful cacophony, whichebbs into the ether. Maybe we're the best at that.' I don't know about the latter, becausesongs like Dust (with Cunningham singing for the first time) and The Rush/Let Go are alsoreally cool. But next time preferably not all crammed onto one CD. (RME)more
