There really isn’t a slow or uninteresting moment on the LP, because there’s always a surprise hidden somewhere. Said surprises don’t come in the form of meticulous details, rather just with how good f5point6 and Rhombus Index are at subverting expectations.
A rather diverse collaboration
Shortly after the release of A World Within Our World, f5point6 comes back with their second full length LP this year; they’re not alone this time around though, as another fellow See Blue Audio scholar joins in. With Rhombus Index on the team, Mutual Expression ends up being a rather diverse collaboration: while the aforementioned A World Within Our World is very static, cold, and almost sterile, the diversity found in Mutual Expression suggests that it really does reflect its title, as the touch of both musician becomes apparent.
That being said, it’s not like A World Within Our World suffered from a lack of impact, if anything the album being so good—and in particular the track “Fertile Ground” being one of the best ambient tunes I’ve heard this year—really had me curious as to how this collaboration could have turned out. Needless to say it, it is also really good indeed. It contains variety; making this such a strong LP, because even in the tracks themselves, it is incredibly satisfying how much things vary, it’s never safe to say where each piece is going to be moving next. Even the more linear progressions seem to really, really take their time, and instead of simply adding something new every X number of measures, they sometimes shift, not drastically, but they still take things into new territories.
I’ll take my favorite piece as an example, “Floam.” It starts off as one of the most innocuous tracks on the whole LP, as it is really sparse and minimalistic. It’s almost unappealing to begin with, there’s no mellow ambient pads or really clean melodies: it’s bareboned, really. As it moves forward, it does start to showcase ambient tendencies, and it starts slowly layering until it is a proper ambient piece… but it’s kind of odd still, it almost enters a Boards of Canada phase, borrowing the haunting synths from “Sunshine Recorder” and the tribal percussion of “Alpha and Omega,” all over an electric piano playing some staccato chords. Safe to say, there really isn’t much ambience here, despite the fact that the piece was teasing a build up to some big immersive soundscape.
Things take yet another left turn ::
Things take yet another left turn, as some horns are introduced; if you’ve been following along with this description, you should definitely not expect some kind of classical arrangement; however, what you also probably didn’t expect is the piece suddenly becoming lo-fi hip hop: as the horns play a really catchy motif, a lazy break also comes in, completely changing the direction the piece was headed in while still keeping all that’s listed above. I mean, what did this track even become? I have no clue, but it is colorful, most definitely interesting, and great!
Another favorite of mine follows right after, also featuring some interesting changes of direction. “One Journey” isn’t really a single journey, as initially it is again another electronic ambient piece, with some sustained chords that almost call to some epic ’70s electronica. But as it moves forward, a looped melody makes an entrance, and it is there to stay and really change the feel of the entire track; instead of some smooth and relaxing ambience, the piece now opts for a really immersive futuristic sound, mainly thanks to that melody, but also due to the background pads now having more body to them. It’s yet again another change of pace, one that is what ultimately makes the track so engaging, like two pieces smoothly merging their different ideas.
“Phase Six” doesn’t have as abrupt of a change, but again despite its linear progression, you really wouldn’t expect it to go full IDM in its second half. You’d really think it would layer some more synthesizers to stack up to a massive climax, but it instead moves away from that. I especially like how the transition happens, with the beat sounding submerged at first, and only suddenly blooming as the synths also become more dynamic, it makes for a very bright shift.
With the beat sounding submerged at first, and only suddenly blooming as the synths also become more dynamic, it makes for a very bright shift.” ~Benci
Another IDM inspired tune is “Lorentz Force,” one that makes use of some more colorful and exotic combinations. The piece begins as the most stereotypical IDM track on here, not to say that it is bland, but that it really wouldn’t alert anyone of being one of the album’s most interesting pieces. Truth be told, the “got you” component of tracks like this is also what makes them interesting in the end, so do not be fooled. It slowly adds new elements, but it does so constantly; at first, you get a pounding kick pattern that you’d lift from a UK bass banger, with it you also get tribal new age percussion, then later some also new age inspired vocals (they could just be synths, but it’s kind of hard to tell), and even later you get a tense hi-hat pattern that settles the track into true IDM territory. If your brains get scrambled reading that, then might as well get them scrambled properly by listening to the actual track, because it displays all of these different elements so quickly that it may even be hard to process when exactly it is intending to settle.
Not everything on Mutual Expression is overwelming, the stretch of the last three tracks is an example of a calmer approach. All three of these pieces state their intentions right from the beginning, and don’t tend to try and surprise you much; they do so because they’re focused on setting a really nice atmosphere, of which “Astra'”s and “Phase 14′”s are especially pleasant. The latter explodes with its polished beat, creating one of the better futuristic tracks on the whole record; I really like the lead melody too, given that it being ascending already gives the piece a solid sense of greatness, which is enhanced by how open it all comes off as.
There really isn’t a slow or uninteresting moment on the LP, because there’s always a surprise hidden somewhere. Said surprises don’t come in the form of meticulous details, rather just with how good f5point6 and Rhombus Index are at subverting expectations.
While I don’t necessarily find myself to be stoked all the time, I also can’t stop giving these pieces attention, because they’re just so intriguing. Suffice to say that if this duo decides to pursue with another collaborative LP, I’d be in line waiting, because what’s on Mutual Expression feels like it doesn’t quite touch the bottom of what this duo is capable of achieving, but it showcases that there really is something next-level lurking.
Mutual Expression is available on See Blue Audio. [Bandcamp]
