An EP that challenges the limitations of electro and illustrates the vastness of a sound that can often feel hemmed-in by exterior demands.
Challenging the limitations of electro
Erik Griffioen has a burgeoning discography. Under his Lloyd Stellar guise, the Dutch producer has graced labels like Gated, LDI and is about to release on 20:20 Vision with his own brand of sideswiped electro. He arrives at Pulse Drift with a six-tracker of original ideas and bold executions.
Randomized Lifeforms is born in the looming darkness of “Breaking Through The Atmosphere.” Foreboding notes hover above a wide expanse of brittle beats and clinical chords with voices drowned in robotic distortion. Saturated bass and snare give way to a playful off-kilter melody in “Implantable Brain-Machine Interface.” And Griffioen, despite maintaining the lines of electro, stretches some parameters of the genre. The wonky keys and brazen shifts of “Waiting for Paradise” sit well outside what are the expected norms. Nevertheless, with Lloyd Stellar, it works. Even when he delves into brutality, the rasping industrial tones and corrupted vocals of “Modular Planets” for example, there is a touch of self-awareness and fun to the endeavor. The title piece is a more serious affair—sci-fi coldness and distant transmissions timed to a ice-flecked percussion. The BPM’s rise for the finale, a swirling mass of angular drums and ghosting keys for the brooding “Storm Chaser.”
Randomized Lifeforms is a perfect introduction to Lloyd Stellar and his wide appreciation for machine music. It is an EP that challenges the limitations of electro and illustrates the vastness of a sound that can often feel hemmed-in by exterior demands. A record from a new wave of musicians that are redefining expectations.
Randomized Lifeforms is available on Pulse Drift. [Bandcamp]
