It’s been a pretty good decade for most forms of electronic music. The genre is experiencing a run at mainstream notoriety that surpasses the late ‘90s and early ‘00s when Moby’s Play threatened to take over the world. Popular artists across a wide range of styles (even country!) incorporate beats, breaks, drops, and textured sounds in an effort to cash in on the trend.
Yet, even as Skrillex and Deadmau5 morphed from surging upstarts to headliners to punch lines in about two years, the genre remains as innovative as ever. A large portion of the thanks goes to a combination of collaborative underground networks and boundary-pushing websites like Resident Advisor, XLR8R, FACT, Dummy, and more.
It’s in this milieu that we can fully appreciate Fractals, the new record from Silkie. The third full-length entry into his corpus, this 11-song offering on Anarchostar Records effortlessly blends future-R&B with footwork, grime, and post-dubstep bass music. The result is a glorious combination of chilled-out electro and bouncy grooves that’s more upbeat and peppy than you might expect given those previous descriptors.
How does Silkie manage this? He starts with prodigious layers of synth pads – some sound straight out of an ‘80s R&B tune, while others feel slick and funky like ‘70s soul and jazz. He then works in heaps of keen-edged snare claps and richly syncopated bass pulses. And when you combine pitch-bent vocals used as sound effects with pop-style arrangements, you arrive at this curious mix of spectral and gleeful that comes across like old-school ‘80s goth-pop.
And what stands out most for me with onFractals can be detected best on key tracks like “Arcada,” “Escape Route,” “Entrapment,” and “Upstate.” Silkie wants to get the crowd moving with some bangin’ beats and melodic daring, but he resists the urge to reach for the cliched drop or ramped-up RPMs, instead preferring a loping space-disco feel with catchy hooks.
Ultimately, Fractals is extroverted, but never over-the-top with its energy or appeal. It wants to engage your senses without overwhelming them. If you’re a fan of recent directions taken by the Butterz and Hyperdub families – or, like me, a junkie for the live sets you can stream online (or download) from Boiler Room, Rinse FM, and FWD>> – you’ll dig what Silkie has created.
Rating: 3.5/5
Here’s the Artwork and Story on Fractals.