Cylob makes Cylob music and that’s what people love about Cylob.
Does anyone still listen to Cylob expecting artistic development along the lines of Autechre or even Aphex Twin? I doubt it because Cylob makes Cylob music and that’s what people love about Cylob. He does this well enough, hewing to the unruly sounds of analog hardware and late 90’s braindance. Cylob songs move along in a predictable, frenetic pace with dissonance and quirkiness. The fact that the entire album bears more than a passing resemblance to mid 90’s Aphex Twin should shock no one except for the fact that it bears more than a passing resemblance to mid-90’s Aphex Twin.
The Quantum Loonyverse, Cylob’s latest, continues in his progression into… Well what, exactly? Everything about Cylob screams early 90’s electronics—even his website. This album is no different, really. At least the songs are short—except for the title track which clocks in at 8:09—but even then they bore the listener quickly.
“The Quantum Intro” starts out promisingly enough with slightly detuned notes and dark melodies but begins to drag at only two minutes long. “Before Veto” sounds like something off of Aphex Twin’s Syro without the over ridden stacking of synth lines upon synth lines. But this song begins to show what plagues this album: a lack of hooks, patterns and melodies that a listener can find to remember which song is which. It’s not that it has to be poppy and catchy—Autechre’s latest works rarely have melodies but are distinct and highly memorable. A lot of the tracks are simply out of tune, ill-conceived jams such as “Threefour” where the detuned synths clash with wrong notes and meandering ideas. “Please Tell Me” could be a Depeche Mode outtake but for the fact that the tuning issues pervade the track so much as to make you think you’re coming down with the flu.
It pains me to find so much lacking in the work of Cylob, whom I want to like because, well, he’s Cylob. But when there’s so little to like or grasp it’s not hard to imagine why Cylob has never risen to the level of his good friend Richard James whom he clearly emulates so openly.
The Quantum Loonyverse is available on Bandcamp.
