FRACTIONAL: Come Mierda CD Brume Records

FRACTIONAL:  Come Mierda  CD  Brume

Subtle electronica with low end breaks kick off this extraordinary release.  Its skittish, it’s frenetic, but does not overstate itself in its initial onslaught.  There is an element of Richard D. James in this but it’s very slight and consistently keeps you on your toes as opposed to bludgeoning you to death.

Curious and more curious this album slows for track two with some very early Aphex Twin-isms and you really come to terms quite quickly here with what Fractional are trying to convey.  There really are some conflicting forces at work on ‘Come Mierda’; some of the fluid IDM tendencies are bordering on cheese factor ten, but strangely enough are allowed to come into their own and are carried along with beautifully programmed breaks; Wonderful.

What attracts me to Fractional is their ability to do whatever they want to. Dark Ambient and other opposing forces like trip-hop are thrown at will into the foray at the most unexpected of moments, and it’s this wild abandon that really sets this release apart, such is its lack of convention.

As far as pure electronica goes this is pretty high on my list of ‘must have’ albums for any self respecting music fan.  Eclectic, accessible, enjoyable, moody, clever; Essential listening.

9.5/10

FLINT GLASS: Circumsounds CD Tympanik Audio / Brume

FLINT GLASS: Circumsounds CD Tympanik Audio / Brume

A novel approach to the standard remix album.  Rather than a collection of Flint Glass works remixed by other artists, this is Gwenn’s approach to other artists within the scene.  As we know nowadays a standard remix isn’t merely changing levels on a track, it’s a complete re-work.  As such this should be a different affair to the norm, and I was very interested as to what FG would bring to the table.

Having heard most of the artists on show before this did help when gathering together the different perspectives and evolutions of the tracks laid before me.

The first part of the album concentrates on those acts that delve around in more ambient circles, an area that FG knows all too well, with a lot of his own work.  What’s in store is an aural treat with a rich plethora of soundscapes and tribal ritualistic movements that’s come crashing through your speakers with a hypnotic paranoid resonance.

Circumsounds has that aura of mystery to it.  It evolves, it twists, it turns and it keeps you on edge every step of the way, never once losing that all essential flow to keep your senses aroused.

What I genuinely love is that with such a broad range of artists with different styles in their own right, FG has managed to keep it all cohesive and relevant enough so that acts such as Sci-Fi industries,  who are more electro friendly in their approach don’t sound out of place next to the more enigmatic of artists such as Displacer and such like.  It would have been very easy to produce a mash up of work and styles that didn’t fit so easily side by side.

Circumsounds sits neatly in the FG back catalogue as a portent to the next full-length album  and will keep me satiated until the next chapter.

8.5/10