Boy Is Fiction: Boy Is Fiction (List Records CD)
Boy Is Fiction's full-length debut on UK label List explores mildly familiar territory. Melbourne producer Alex Gillett's music is highly melodic and beautiful, focusing on the abstract side of IDM electronics with often beatless arrangements. When rhythm does appear, it's typically in a bitcrushed, stuttering manner that will probably feel like home for any self-professed fan of the genre's last big wave of popularity (late 90s, early 00s). Much of the music is comparable to the pretty melodic sounds of labels such as Neo Ouija, Morr Music, or Toytronic, specifically the first proper Digitonal release on the latter. Whereas Digitonal's aesthetic hinged largely on violin, these tracks focus around the use of piano.
The piano at play on this album is at the other side of the spectrum from yesterday's post about Hostluft -- it's far less about minimalism and more about crafting delicate, lush, full soundtracks. The interplay between piano, synths, beats and atmospheres is far more deliberately constructed. Each of this album's songs, despite their similar palette of sounds, manages to craft its own little part of the same world. Opener "BiF vs. 307" sets things in motion quite nicely, with its first act focusing on delicate electric piano melodies before kicking into a lush, beat-laden closing half full of those crunchy beats and minor chords that have served the IDM genre so well all these years. On a few tracks, the beat takes hold more firmly, such as the tightly-wound "If You Hear Me Fall" or "Say Ah," the latter of which has a distorted racket about its drumming that recalls early µ-Ziq (Bluff Limbo-era). "Say Ah" and "Glue Let Me Think" are part of the album's closing suite in which distortion and noise factor more into the production, but it's the middle section of the album, in particular the darker sounds of "Should Have Stopped" and "Stack Is Bad" that grip me most closely.
This album is a healthy dose of melancholy soundtracks, smart piano pieces and somewhat obvious IDM rhythmic flourishes that, while they could be forgivingly described as "tried n' true," do serve to enhance these tracks rather than take away from them. It's nice to hear these sounds being played with and extended beyond their post-90s heyday, and while this music remains quite true to the aesthetic of that time, it's not without a keen ear for melody, mood and texure. And perhaps most importantly: it's gorgeous stuff.
mp3s: Bif Vs. 307 | Should Have Stopped
more information: Myspace | List Records
buy it: List Records