While we’ve just passed the Christmas season and people are contemplating whether or not to take down the lights from around the eaves, X4 reminds us that just the right amount of brittle and jovial electronics is needed to get us through the end of the year.
Venturing into brighter, festive sonic hues
X4 continue to unfold their unique braindance selections, and on🎄, ten tracks of experimental electronics venture into brighter, festive sonic hues. Overall calming and chilled, tracks like Utopia Cloak’s “all I want for Christmas is Velum Break,” is a drifting rhythmic groove calling for Velum Break to return, perhaps—and we agree! Anitta’s fidgetty “Cut the Mustard (feat. Tom Sine)” draws from acid drenched glitch and microscopic beats as love horses’ “brianv2” dives headfirst into pure static bliss where subtle noises and minimal techno entangle.
While the opening by Jerohme titled “Dance of the Lumpy Sugar Fair” is a take on “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies,” Jerohme gives it an abstract IDM spin while maintaining its original blurry melody. Danny Playamaqui’s “Hi-hat” is a flowing maze of relaxed synths as Dollarstore Keyboard’s “Dolby Dragon 2” provides a downbeat click-hop glow. And it’s in these pleasant compositions where you’ll find the sparks. Greystar’s “New Friends” delivers nostalgia from several decades ago while Florian Förster’s “Weg durch den Sumpf” is a brooding tribal soundtrack of dark ambient we simply weren’t expecting. The Simian’s “The Cold Visitor of Glass and Phosphor” offers synth wonders as Lee’s “Festive AF M8” is perhaps the most festive of the lot.
While we’ve just passed the Christmas season and people are contemplating whether or not to take down the lights from around the eaves, X4 reminds us that just the right amount of brittle and jovial electronics is needed to get us through the end of the year.
🎄 is available on X4. [Bandcamp]
