The energy conveyed is strong, and the combination of synthy future bass and JPEGMAFIA’s signature style is heaven on the palate.Īt this point, there’s still more to come. Floating around somewhere in there is an excellent remix of SOPHIE’s “Is It Cold In The Water?” featuring Eprom, leading into what is possibly the best track on the project, “How To Build a Relationship.” Sporting one of the best JPEGMAFIA verses (arguably) of all time, Flume blends his smooth cocktail of future nostalgia with Barrington Hendricks’ hot, spicy, loud vocals to make a song that begs to be played at a high volume. The middle of the album is more of the same, enjoyable, slightly atmospheric synths that transport the listener to another place and time. Rather than simply channeling a more concentrated take on the 80’s auditory aesthetic like so many others have, Flume juices it, blending it together with trap and bass influences to create something uniquely modern that quickly feels familiar and comfortable. Now that the listener is along for the ride, Flume brings them along into a world within a vintage tape deck inside your neighbor’s brother’s DeLorean with the missing hubcap. Flume really flexes in the first few tracks, hooking the listener immediately. Again, a seamless transition (spoiler: they’re all seamless, it’s fantastic) into the third track, “High Beams,” featuring HWLS and slowthai, with an aggressive, no-holds-barred rap exploding over a catchy, toe-tapping beat. The glitchy, futuristic sound of this track is a fantastic first taste of the neon-enshrined ride that awaits the listener. The transition to “Ecdysis” is seamless, with Flume’s chatter fading away and a hard, bass-y percussion jumping into the mix without hesitation. The same few vocal samples repeat, overlapping and looping to shape a cacophonous, swirling mess that lets the rhythmic synth line of the following song surreptitiously slip in. The album opens with the title track, a vocal introduction called “Hi This Is Flume.” All it is is Streten introducing himself, layered with…. That’s not to say that Streten has completely departed from what makes him distinctly Flume, rather he has tapped into a more experimental, uncompromising side of his sonic palette, choosing to dip a brush into the wet, lush paint, and go crazy on the canvas of the listeners’ ears. He takes his image as a major player in the softcore, background-music-esque, YouTube autoplay music scene, crumples it up, and eats it. On this record (if you can even call it that), Flume breaks from his reputation as a somewhat generic, very “mid 2010’s” style musician and bring something more exciting to the table. Nonetheless, it makes for a fantastic listen. As far as playlist-ability goes, this project has troubles with delivering tracks that stand well on their own, and there is a feeling that pervades the mixtape, a feeling of getting really close to something great, but not quite hitting the mark. However, for those that enjoy cohesive, smooth, and unique experiences, “Hi This is Flume” has that in spades. His instrumentation choices are bold and Flume doesn’t shy away from complex production and sounds that appear challenging when first listening. Like the artist he is, it feels like Flume threw paint at the wall and it just happened to turned out flawless.Īt 17 tracks, with just a taste of the right collabs from Eprom (x2, on a remix and an original), SOPHIE, Kučka, JPEG Mafia, HWLS, and Slowthai, it’s hard to conceive that we may still also get a fully-fledged and more mainstream lilting album from the Aussie this year.Australian producer Flume is back after three years of absence with a mixtape entitled “Hi This Is Flume.” On it, Harley Streten delivers some of his best work ever, and certainly one of the highlights of the electronic music scene of 2019 so far. I say carelessly, but it’s truly a careless perfection. Odd canters and off-beat patterns revolve throughout the atmosphere and justly applied vocals fill the void in between, providing just enough backing for the pulsating rhythms strewn almost carelessly between tracks. From front to back, he is unapologetically himself throughout this entire mixtape. His ability to capture the essence of what makes Flume, “Flume” in an even better way on each consecutive project is possibly the most spectacular evolution to witness in electronic music. Flume’s new mixtape, “Hi This Is Flume,” has arrived in full and it’s nothing short of perfect.Įvery time that Flume releases new music, I question just how long he can continue doing what he does. If you like Flume, if you like weird bass music, if you like mature electronic music, then I’m not really sure it can get much better than this.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |