nothing ages like the avant garde. two or three years ago, the schematic catalogue was among the hottest commodities in the post-warp market, stuttering and skipping its way into the black hearts of the idm cognoscenti and generally sounding like the real deal, the Music of the Future. well, the problem with the music of the future is that, eventually, everyone will end up making it, and swell cats like phoenecia and richard devine simply weren't far enough ahead of their time to escape the backlash. practically every kid with a computer has staked his (and sometimes her) claim in electronica's subgenreficaton game since randa roomet; stylistic identity is now specialized and micromanaged to the point of absurdity, even self-parody, and seemingly massive sea changes result from the minutest evolutions:
o, hey tristan. this is rafael. check it. i got a bitchin' softsynth off hotline. yeah, i think this, in tandem with the other softsynths and my DSP card, is totally gonna change my sound. like the LFOs are gonna be synched the BPM this time. i don't think i should record under my main project name, 'ingtar extel', using this synth. it's like, a totally different headspace. i've decided to call this project "electro.ph.oresis". it's my more danceable alter ego. anyway, i'll see you tonight, i'm sporting fly pants.
thus, phoenecia's long-delayed, aptly-titled full length couldn't have come at a better time. abstract / intelligent dance music has never before been in such peril of falling headfirst into its own ass and, in a time when this can be called really good, they've succeeded in not being the band that puts it there. on brownout, phoenecia revisit berlin dub's kingston birthplace with a little help from mouse on mars, taking especial care not to ash on their shiny pants or the car's leather seats. so how's it sound? confident and self-actualized. nary a miami bass reference in sight. sonically spaceous, if limited in conceptual scope (ie, some of the tracks sound pretty similar). there are some class hyper-sequenced (*dut-dut-du-d-d-d-d-dddddttt*) tracks that revisit the ischemic folks phenomenon and find the elusive groove, but much of it's lo-lite evening music, satisfactorily whirring in the background while offering sufficient timbral variation to reward the attentive. prolly the best thing to have playing on the background during long, post-party mornings when you're trying to stay awake but don't want to wake the flatmates. definitely the thing to buy if you can't afford an isolation tank. it's not quite the music of tomorrow or next month, but in the product's quality and their stubborn refusal play to the fashionably-minimalist hype, phoenecia are very definitely making the music of now, whenever and wherever that is.
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