The main body of Down Cosm considered as a six-track snapshot of the state of Iuengliss’ art presents an impressively skilled and diverse picture. As an taste of what Iuengliss has in store for the future, it’s even more tantalizing.
I first encountered Iuengliss in the course of reviewing 2013’s Plastic Sound Supply Compilation Ultrasoft Anthems. Tommy Metz’s contribution there was only a minute and half long, but was intriguing enough that I looked him up online and was blown away by the generative visual accompaniment to tracks off his earlier self-released album Blank Matter. Now comes a proper release, also on PSS, of Down Cosm, something halfway between an EP and a full album with six main tracks and four marked “bonus.” All of it is definitely worth the time and the measly $3.99 for all short-attention-span glitch seekers.
I say “short attention span” because several tracks here are barely over a minute in length, including the opener “Slow Dot cloud”, which rumbles and builds like an abbreviated version of Autechre’s “Gantz Graf,” then segues directly into the album’s title track. I deeply enjoyed the interplay on “Down Cosm” between the acid-house percussion tracks, the delicate plucked lead melody and the fat bass sweeps. The song breaks down halfway through then rebuilds itself from constituent parts, which works well—there’s a lot going on here and it’s nice to build a little breathing room into the song structure. “Eying” brings forth a more symphonic boom-bap style; a layered, tinkling figure competes with low-end stabs but all of it is side-chained in service to the kick/snare pulse, and indeed the last 30 seconds of the song are a drum solo… after a fashion.
“Descent” earns its name with a soprano stair-stepping melodic line that’s mirrored down low by an incredibly tough ruffneck bass—a great track and one that kept me trying to find ways to turn it up louder. Another brief ambient interlude “Attenuation” leads to the closer of the album proper, the thumping, acidic 4/4 of “Cognative Spawning” (I can’t tell whether the title is a deliberate play on “cognates” or a simple typo). Bleepy low-fi synths stack up and mutate, interrupt each other, transform from a pleasant, meandering pattern into a fierce acid-house backdrop, and then ultimately resolve to an angelic conclusion. There are four or so distinct sections in this six-minute track, which exemplifies either Iugengliss’ relentless innovation or his inability to sit still for longer than 90 seconds.
The Scaffolding remix of “Descent” doesn’t add much to the original and the rest of the bonus tracks were rightly relegated to the end of the album. “Forest Cycle Baum” is a pleasant a glissade as “Downfall” is abrasive and noisy. “Rapid Eye” rounds it out with a beatless exercise in sophisticated synth programming, as the lead tone changes throughout to evoke birdsong, plucked instruments, strings, and bells before finally fading out.
But these are bonus tracks after all, perhaps earlier works that didn’t have another way to see release; the main body of Down Cosm considered as a six-track snapshot of the state of Iuengliss’ art presents an impressively skilled and diverse picture. As an taste of what Iuengliss has in store for the future, it’s even more tantalizing.
Down Cosm is available on Plastic Sound Supply.
