As you frame Parallel Processes alongside its inspirations, it’s a powerful kickback to the heights of IDM. Current label, Bedroom Research are inspired by the impact it had when it was released 1998. It’s an album to escape into. A world of eccentric expression and sentiment. In 2019, Parallel Processes is still not a coherent record but delightfully unstable, eccentric and playful.
Standing between IDM giants
Jake Mandell flew close to commercial success with his debut album, Parallel Processes, originally released on Worm Interface in 1998. He gained international acclaim for a record full of IDM details, glitch, scratch and a drum and bass (d’n’b) style. Mandell’s sound stood in between giants Aphex Twin, Autechre and Boards of Canada (BoC). As those three became pillars of the electronic music scene, Mandell’s focus changed as he went to work on some of the most cutting-edge audio software tools of the time, Reaktor and Native Instruments. His career now resides in medicine, though he’s recently made a comeback this year with a new album, Magnetic Resonance (Schematic, 2019) and this, Parallel Processes Plus, the re-release of the 1998 original, with five unreleased tracks from that same era.
In 1998 IDM was lifting off. Aphex Twin were on the eve of commercial success and Autechre on the rise. BoC had landed on the scene too with Hi Scores 1996 with Skam (and reissued in 2014). Aphex Twin, Autechre and BoC—as we know them—had never been experienced by listeners before. It’s difficult to clearly understand how listeners first experienced these three during the 90s–but we know now that they impacted and later dominated the industry in ways unimaginable back then. Jake Mandell was clearly gripped by how Autechre, Aphex Twin and BoC sounded in Parallel Processes.
Youthful and bold
Parallel Processes is a richly detailed album. Mandell didn’t just imitate Autechre, Aphex Twin or BoC track by track. He blended them all together, in all of these tracks. Each piece is an eccentric combination of those three artists’ traits. It’s arguable how much of Parallel Processes is meant to be listenable or a demonstration of creative ability. For producers, Parallel Processes is an album full of little sonic details to be delighted about. For listeners, Parallel Processes was likely not findable enough because it was in between styles, never staking a strong enough claim of its own. Even so, there’s something youthful and bold about Parallel Processes. It’s not self-conscious in how it moulds its inspirations together. It’s more brash and flamboyant and just doesn’t give a damn.
Parallel Processes is a body of glitch, scratch, d’n’b, distortion and synth. Mid album track, “Last Night” is a highlight. It’s got a wonderful modulating and granular sequence moving it forward. “Tatter Shrags” is an eccentric blend of Autechre glitch and spooky sounding synths. “Ambitious Questaceon” is playful with a jumpy bass melody. Toward the final parts of the album, “Plic Plex” really ups the ante, with aggressive d’n’b breaks and dark sounding synths. “Dirthoe” changes the pace, jangling along with an oddball guitar melody. The album ends in a banger, final track “Rockslide” has distorted drums in an upbeat tempo alongside a grainy sounding melody.
Laced with technical details
This is a large body of work laced with technical details, little experiments and flashy shows of creative flair. Yet, despite the intense detail, the album sounds the same most of the way through. The melodic synth palette is very much the same throughout. The percussive noises feel metallic and thin. That’s understandable, given the time it was made. Yet, surprising, the album being a massive 27 tracks and over 100 minutes long.
As you frame Parallel Processes alongside its inspirations, it’s a powerful kickback to the heights of IDM. Current label, Bedroom Research are inspired by the impact it had when it was released 1998. It’s an album to escape into. A world of eccentric expression and sentiment. In 2019, Parallel Processes is still not a coherent record but delightfully unstable, eccentric and playful.
Parallel Processes Plus is available on Bedroom Research.
