Astrobal :: L’uomo e la natura (Karaoke Kalk)

This suite equally transports me into the gravity fields of swiftly tilting orbits, recalling the fun and excitement of the new worlds our old futures were supposed to have delivered us to by now.

An atmosphere of joy and innovation

This record is a quite unexpected excursion into the outer limits of library exotica by one-of-a-kind French drummer and music producer Astrobal. These songs throw a welcome curveball of smooth and easy listening into the listening sphere. A strange touch of the unexpected meeting the whimsically familiar is a welcome addition into the expanding world of electronic music.

When I say smooth and easy, don’t think of vaporwave rip off’s who have no sense of beat or rhythm but slow everything down, and chop things up. Not that that is a bad thing, but this album has energy, it has voices. It has singing from outer space, that remind me of the likes of Samuel J. Hoffman and his early record of theremin excursions, Perfume Set to Music. This suite equally transports me into the gravity fields of swiftly tilting orbits, recalling the fun and excitement of the new worlds our old futures were supposed to have delivered us to by now. Funky syncopations and ascending ladder lines of bass grooves, synthetic laser blasts, and calypso infused rhythms help it achieve blast off.

The quaver of individual synth lines recalls a world where the likes of Les Baxter and Martin Denny ascended much higher in the cultural pantheon than the vinyl collections of hipsters. Yet while this looks to the library music and orchestral sounds of cocktail lounges past, it has its eye not on being kitsch retro, but on the timelessness of these sounds. The ever present need to unwind and take it easy, no matter what your temporal time zone happens. No chronocentrism here.

 

Sequencers and drum machines take it further and this stuff sizzles and evaporates like drops of tropical water splashed on a hot cast iron skillet. There is a humidity here amidst these freakadelic fantasias. Everything is bathed in cigar and cigarette smoke, fog machines, the molten core of liquid lava lamps and transposed pitches that bend and swirl into paisley hues optimism. No one is annoyed by the cigarette smoke either. In fact, it is reveled in, though smoking jackets sadly, are not provided. Brief guitar chords are strummed along with the flutter of delayed voices that simmer in this bachelor pad that could be circling the earth as if ensconced inside a satellite outfitted for perfect luxury.  

Everything is alright, yes, everything is alright. At least while escaping into the soothing sounds of L’uomo e la Natura. This is just the thing to put on as your mixing up an absinthe cocktail to take you to the palace of the green fairy. It opens doors into a liminal world of happiness and relaxation. Take the escape!

A homage to library music ::

There is a complete abandonment of high-brow taste in difficult dissonant listening here. This is harmony, and fitted to the enjoyment of everyone. Those steeped in simply brutalist aesthetics might get turned off by the warmth, beauty, and complexity of these uplifting arrangements. But hey, don’t we need some upliftment? Brutality is found easily enough. Yes, this stuff is a homage to library music and the strains of sounds made for everyday listening. As such it might be easy to think these sounds were made with ease. But it is obvious a lot of hard work and care went into creating this sonic delirium, and anyone who would dismiss the buoyant ebullience it presents as out of touch with reality, would only show themselves as shallow and trite. He does include a song called “The End of Capitalism” after all.

 

Another song “Miami 2064” envisions a drowned world, a city that has become another Florida, an island or archipelago where all the clubbing is now at least partially submerged in a new kind of wet heat. It’s not just tabs of ecstasy and hitting the dance floor, but battling with alligators in a tepid swamp. So, while the sounds here are hopeful, he hasn’t forgotten the world we live in and of the possible trajectories that is unfolding.

That’s what makes this a great experiment in controlled absurdity, pushing the envelope of electronic pop with fresh ears inspired by the triumphs of past forms. Something mutated is emerging from that swamp. There is a warped sensibility on display. The twisted arrangements show a gift for percussive mixology that transcends the tiki-bar ambience while still being snazzy and hi-fi. It’s a tweaked take on pop arrangements made by a producer who didn’t have need to hire a big band to solve the equations, and filled it up instead with synth splashes that pulse through the speakers with boldness and understated braggadocio.

Put this on when you need to flash forward into the hopeful futures that are adjacent to our anxious headline horrors. It’s okay to chill out and relax with some good tunes. It might even be healthy. Spreading happiness can help make those better worlds possible, and this happy music evokes an atmosphere of joy and innovation. Thanks for the chill pill.

L’uomo e la natura is available on Karaoke Kalk. [Bandcamp]