‘Area Flood’ begins with a deceptively simple premise: four pieces of electronic music inspired by a night when nature seemed to overrun the limits of ordinary life. Yet the split release by Ryan J. Raffa, Sam Prekop (The Sea and Cake) and Steve Zydek’s Wavefiler project is far more evocative than a straightforward document of weather. Its four tracks transform unstable weather patterns along with the communal experience of sheltering indoors into an exploration of perception. That idea is particularly fitting given the back story surrounding the release. In August 2025 Milwaukee faced torrents of rain, lightning and historic flash flooding. Musicians gathered inside Anodyne Coffee for a show curated by Zydek. The coincidence of the performance and the weather made the scene feel surreal. Music played inside while Milwaukee outside was changed by atmospheric forces that nobody could control. ‘Area Flood’ interprets that memory through abstraction rather than reportage.
Ryan J. Raffa and Sam Prekop open with “Wide Open Spaces,” a title that initially suggests freedom and expansiveness. The music complicates that promise. Electronic tones appear to stretch outward, creating an impression of immense scale, yet the space is never entirely stable. Sounds seem to hover at different distances, inviting the listener to consider the strange psychological effect of looking into a landscape after a dramatic weather event. Familiar geography becomes unfamiliar simply because its proportions have changed. Prekop’s long history of electronic composition makes him an especially natural collaborator for Raffa. His work has consistently demonstrated how synthesizers can function as environmental instruments rather than merely melodic devices, and that sensibility is evident here. Raffa and Prekop avoid obvious dramatic cues. Instead of imitating thunder with exaggerated low frequencies or constructing a cinematic storm sequence, they allow subtle shifts in density and tone to suggest atmospheric transformation. “Wide Open Spaces” becomes less about the physical dimensions of a landscape than the sensation of suddenly recognizing how enormous it is.
“Rain Windows” turns the perspective inward. The title places the listener behind glass, watching weather from a position of relative safety. That boundary is psychologically important. Outside, water is uncontrolled; inside, perception becomes the means of understanding it. Raffa and Prekop build the track around this duality, using electronic textures that suggest both motion and enclosure. The music is contemplative without becoming inert, and its changing layers imply a world constantly being obscured and revealed. The two Raffa and Prekop pieces work especially well as a pair because they approach the same phenomenon from opposing positions. “Wide Open Spaces” looks outward toward scale, while “Rain Windows” focuses on mediation and shelter. Together, these tracks remind that weather is never about something separate from us. A window becomes a frame; rain becomes a filter; distance becomes a condition. Steve Zydek’s Wavefiler tracks take the record in a different direction. “Between Whether” suggests a sense of apprehension while being caught between possibilities. Zydek’s Wavefiler embraces that dubiety. Electronic tones shift against one another never finding a path. This creates a feeling of being stuck between situations. The piece does not focus on showing a storm. Instead, it aims to capture the state that arises when certainty vanishes. Zydek’s involvement also gives the release a strong sense of local continuity. As Wavefiler, he has been an active participant in Milwaukee’s music community, organizing events that bring experimental electronic artists into conversation with one another. The appearance of Raffa and Prekop alongside him on ‘Area Flood’ feels like a continuation of that communal practice. This is not simply a split release assembled through distant collaboration. Its origins are rooted in an actual network of performances, friendships and shared spaces.
“Sum Dance” ends the record with a title that brings a sense of motion and play. After the mystery of the earlier tracks, the closer feels more rhythmically suggestive while staying firmly inside the release’s electronic style. The word sum is especially resonant within this record. Different sounds, musicians and experiences gather into one impression. Dance, meanwhile, introduces the body. After spending much of the EP contemplating weather and landscape, Zydek brings the listener back toward physical movement. That shift gives the record a subtle arc. The first two pieces consider the external world through Raffa and Prekop’s atmospheric language; Zydek then moves through uncertainty toward something more kinetic. The music does not narrate the flood in chronological terms, but it does trace a psychological progression from observation to disorientation and finally to movement. Rafael Anton Irisarri’s mastering keeps the four pieces sounding distinct. The mastering ensures all the pieces remain distinct while cohesive enough to belong in the same sonic world. The electronic textures retain enough space around them to let small shifts in tone become significant. ‘Area Flood’ is interesting exactly because it doesn’t seek to make disaster spectacular. The Milwaukee floods give the origin story. The music looks at something subtler: how extreme weather changes thinking pulls strangers together into temporary communities and turns ordinary surroundings into something completely different. ‘Area Flood’ tells a story, about how normal life can turn upside down. Raffa, Prekop and Zydek respond not with musical catastrophe but with attentiveness and interpretation.
The four pieces consequently operate as small studies in altered perception. “Wide Open Spaces” finds something in what is left behind. “Rain Windows” makes a shelter feel like a window to watch the world. “Between Whether” lives in not knowing. “Sum Dance” turns all those memories into movement. All these songs work together to let out a feeling. The music feels big and airy. The music never feels lost or empty. The music stays smart without losing any of the heart, leaving an impression of having witnessed something that cannot quite be described directly. ‘Area Flood’ senses the flood even though the flood cannot be seen. It can hear the city even though the city is not visible and feels the weather as a metaphor that’s still real. In the hands of Raffa, Prekop and Zydek electronic music becomes a way to remember not what happened but how it felt to be inside while the outside world temporarily changed its rules.
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