(02.23.06) Justin G., the knob-nooddling scientist behind Cacheflowe, freely
admits a dislike for “traditional dance music,” and Automate
Everything never even comes close to putting on a pair of sequined
shoes and getting down. Definitely freeform, his electronics squirt,
blurt, cough and wriggle with a genre-skewering nonchalance. Austere
hip-hop vibes shake hands with skittering drum and bass rhythms while
sipping sparkling soda with fractured 8-bit electronics. It’s one of
those parties where you’re not quite sure if you know anyone in the
room.
“Cash Back” merges analog synthesizers doing elongated wolf whistles
and space music swooshes with small machines that go “ping!” and
“bleep!” as well as crumbling drum programming that continually
fumble-fingers beats. The star of “Pinnacle 1421” is a drum kit. A
couple of cymbals, kick drum, toms, and a few triggers: this kit
rumbles from laidback street beats to tight drum and bass to spiraling
free jazz. It lurches with a rhythmic swagger and mincing dance step,
dropping a couple of horn players off at a bodega and slouching off to
drink some beer in the park and throw bread crumbs at the pigeons.
“Patch It” gargles and cavorts with phrases of movie soundtrack
fusion, vocal spurts, double drum shenanigans and finger-bending
keyboard melodies; while “Phunkdaphonies” marries synth stabs, a
trip-hop mood loop, washes of airplane noises, and drum programming
that mutters and curses to itself. It’s a strange sort of funk
symphony, a conglomeration of sounds that hang together but do so in a
way that seems precariously close to capsizing.
And that may be the best phrase for Cacheflowe: “precariously close
to capsizing.” His music is too relaxed and groovy to fall into the
gabber camp (where more noises are the yardstick by which artists and
audiences seem to measure success) and too unstructured to be
considered downtempo or hip-hop. Cacheflowe is an IDM highwire
juggler working to his own rhythm. You can’t always anticipate his
next move, but he keeps the blipsploitation interesting.
Automate Everything is out now on Nobot Media.
