Ugh. I hate to be a dick, I really do, but I'm an honest dude and I don't hold back, so... here goes nothin'. I don't like this. At all. The label describes this as "high-energy electronic music that combines disjointed rhythms, ambient textures, and raw inspired sounds" and "music without compromise or constraints, introducing new ideas at a blistering and frantic pace". That's partially true, but it's still not very good. It's basically moderately lightweight glitchy and chaotic electronic music that uses a lot of blips (appropriately enough) and programmed percussive textures with a few more distorted and aggressive moments and rare occurrences of manipulated high-pitched spoken vocals and flurries of almost metallic guitar notes or other musical elements (horns and such). It's definitely fast paced and frenetic, but it's also very disjointed and one-sided as a whole, with most tracks topping five, six, or even seven minutes, which is what I would be quick to classify as overkill. And, aside from the fact that I find the compositions to lack cohesive flow or tangible structures, I don't like the aesthetics of the material either. I think the vocal work is horrible, as rare as such appearances may be, and the overtly electronic elements and programmed beats are quite generic, so I get nothing out of this work at all. Nothing strikes me as emotional on any level, so it's not moving or atmospheric to my ears. Sure, now and then there's a nice little bass drone or ambient background sound that's rather enjoyable, but that's grasping at straws considering these elements almost always take place underneath the more obnoxious side of the material. Working in its favor is a crisp recording that's very clear and well rounded in its display of different tonal ranges, but that makes little difference when the compositions themselves come off as a variety of methods that clash with my personal preferences. On the one hand some of the material feels rather lighthearted and fun, whereas the other side of it is simply experimental and odd for the sake of it, and I'm not a fan of either of those approaches. The disc comes in a digipack with lots of dirty, glitchy artwork that has kind of a chaotic and digital feel to it. It's not bad, it seems a little strange, but I've seen worse. The lettering is a little goofy but kind of fits the whole digital aesthetic of the artwork and music, so... I guess it all fits the style of the audio component. However, this just isn't for me. It's a simple matter of opinion. Some people are into this stuff, and I'm not. They have their reasons, and I have mine. Sorry.
[RA Sounds]
Running time - 45:41, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: "Mermins" comes the closest as it's the only truly consistent and cohesive piece herein]
RA Sounds - http://www.ronanderson-molecules.com
