DFFDL & Scenic Recovery “Split” Chemical Imbalance Records | The Electro Review

DFFDL & Scenic Recovery
“Split”
Chemical Imbalance Records
Out Now


Eclectic underground cassette release label Chemical Imbalance always delve into mysterious waters and uncover superb and sought-after treasures for the electronic sound art scene. Their flavour of crafted and controlled distortions, ambient drone, and splendid fly-bys from space-age technology makes an ideal helipad for this Chinook of a release. Two fifteen minute escapades into the realms of sonic sculpture elevate both DFFDL and Scenic Recovery into the world of collectable music. It's almost Summer in Australia, and as we in Europe and the USA fetch our scarves and gloves, DFFDL and Scenic Recovery can bask in the grace of the Sun and the knowledge of a well deserved landmark title. Featuring an amazing, non-conformist image by artist Brooke Van Der Linden, the Melbourne produced release is limited to 30 cassettes and of course unlimited digital downloads.


Focus begins with a roaring wave like a cybernetic ocean. Strange digitisations of swell and current boil around in an amplitude hungry froth, soon giving way to angelic whistle-chimes which, with polyphonic qualities, span the horizon like growing flocks of birds launching from the watery surface. What seems like a never ending barrage of bustling life drills through the illusory notion of beginning and end and while the sound-fare continues on, new passages of waveform begin to sneak in through the amalgam of white-noise. Subtle shifts in tonal sway bring slight adjustments to directions within the piece, and as focus may imply, the resolution of the sound becomes increasingly vibrant. Formulations of synthesised shrill and pitch swerve and mingle in digital and almost organic sounding helices of subtle melodics. While remaining extremely drone ambient with drawn out passages which are never in a hurry to evolve, the shifting and gradual moving around of the entire work manages to keep the piece in a workable and enjoyable progression. Never lingering but not shy of thoroughly exploring each corner of the soundsphere these vocalisations of technology create for us, we have a real mental and sonic map of a vast area of expanding destinations.


The Scenic Recovery track breaks open like a bottle of lamps, each one rising through the opening as if luminous bubbles lighter that air. Blank Paper Spirit perhaps encapsulates the potential energy of a blank sheet of paper when in the hands of a creator such as Scenic Recovery. Admiring the mysterious void of ideas which hooks and anchors onto the desire to be expressed when presented with such a tool for thought, the music spans into directions adjacent to one another forming a three dimensional field of view within sound. Horn like drones with drum sounds which resonate and crumble away as the time lapsed reverberations melt into each other release tensions and shrinking pitches that creep in the undergrowth. This bubbling mass of sound begins to warm up and as gurgles and steam rise from its depths, breaking points on the surface tension reveal new aromas of melded ingredients. It's heavy stuff, with brutal facias of soft noise breaking the view into portions of labyrinthed structure, it reminds me a lot of Park Hill in Sheffield. It's ironic in a way that the cover art shows a tranquil country scene.


Music for thinking to, for drinking tea and musing on the cosmos, or simply something to keep you focused on more important things, this half hour of escapist anthems brings us to new places inside our own minds. Drifting notes and wavering assemblies of various tones allow us to dream away our moments with a fanfare of lucid reality. Is it the future, is it the distant past? Is it right now just a moment away from the horizon?


Split from Chemical Imbalance Records is available on Bandcamp


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