This latest release by FMS-80 on the ever-intriguing Rednetic label spins through series of dizzying, pastoral soundscapes bobbing on a sea of loops that scatter like sunlight on turbulent waves.
A riot of bells on opener “Beidaihe Loop” holds incredible vibrancy, the mantra-like simplicity of the rippling loops moving through “Esplanade View” like a static vista of a fresh day, that panorama across a sunlit harbour in its people-free joy.
There is an Eastern vibe to “New Visions Of China”, its interwoven pieces entered randomly by a delightful woodblock, while “Modern Hutong Courtyard” is all random metallic discord in a static widescreen of sun and pristine blue skies. The album is a very interesting amalgam of the abrasive details dovetailing with the more pastoral soundscapes that seem so clean and pure, and the image on the cover somehow evokes this perfectly. The loops are often very short, but here is hypnosis here and the sense of something always evolving, if minutely. It is like wavelets endlessly moving across open water, something simple but joyful for all to experience. The vibrancy and sense of Eastern groove reappears on “Changgo House”, a hipshaker that adds little snippets of interest at each turn, yet still compels the listener to get up and get with it. It is a different feel to what came before.This disarming journey winds up with the muffled, almost congested clots of “Swedish Container”, where the sounds tumble around one another like they are trapped in a dryer. Once again, it is kind of unexpected and yet definitely fits the modus operandi. You will have to stick Lifestyle 02 back on just to see if your ears were right first time around; so get yourself over to Bandcamp for one of fifty CDs. Just do it.
-Mr Olivetti-
