echium: disruptions of form

Absorbingly intricate ambient electronics from Echium, a secluded Manchester producer returning for a second release on sferic, the label home to Space Afrika, Perila, and Jake Muir. After inaugurating sferic with the Synthetic Space LP in 2017, Echium now leads the way with a remarkably refined, even meticulous grasp of sound design steering away from purely "synthetic space" to imaginary spaces that smudge the listener's perceptions of artificial and organic texture, tone, and spatial dynamics. Like the best of its contemporary field, from Vladislav Delay to uon and Heith, the meticulous technical physics of Disruptions Of Form provides the framework for a gently haunting spectra of metaphysical presence or spirited pathos to bleed through and reveal the sort of ghost in the machine that electronic music lovers prize. Collaged from banks of unfinished material, the results resemble a spongiform patchwork of shine-eye ambient-pop gestures and cosmic electro-acoustic parts that smudge and crystalize into a heavy-lidded, quietly beguiling narrative. The nine tracks resemble an archipelago of interlinked microcosmos, each a variation of the last, following a deformed geologic chain reaction of events through its terraforming sonic sculptures that appear to describe subaquatic organisms and their environment with close attention paid to both microscopic detail and plangent panoramics. As part of the next wave of artists innovating within dub techno and experimental ambient zones, Echium looks to loosen up its strictures while playing deep within its unfathomable dimensions, literally urging a dematerialization of mindsets and musical structures with literal titles such as "Collapsed Senses" and "Glacial Rust" matched by meticulous sound design that surely connotes and evokes their meaning in the most elusively abstract, lushly sensorial terms. Mastered and cut by Stefan Betke at Scape mastering. RIYL: West Mineral Ltd., Vladislav Delay, Jan Jelinek, Pole. Translucent orange vinyl; Edition of 300.