Album Review: FluiD - "Envisioning Abstraction: The Duality of FluiD"

A while back I was contacted by a European record label by the name of Alrealon Musique, a label which prides itself by independently putting out experimental music. It was through them that I was able to review John 3:16's fantastic new album, and a few days ago in the mail, I received a package with John 3:16's album and Envisioning Abstraction: The Duality of FluiD by musician/ producer The Fluid.

Duality is one of those albums which mish-mash a bunch of genres together. Thick, distorted bass guitar straight out of modern hip-hop, electronic samples, and loud screeching, not unlike what you'd find in noise music are in ample supply on this album. The drums groove nicely throughout the album, and when everything comes together, the songs sort of seem to work as instrumental hip-hop tracks. None of it would fit in a T-Pain or Ludacris track, but these tunes seem to be more akin to the frantic backings of many Death Grips songs. One song in particular, "Iron Communique" features experimental hip-hopper Black Saturn on the mic, and it really becomes a full track once the vocals drop.

For the most part, FluiD keeps a pretty tense atmosphere throughout the album. With all the noise in the background of the tracks, things always stay uneasy, especially when the other instruments start to pick up. Luckily, things do ease up, like with the tracks "Dread Futures" and "Parallel States", but between these two (the fourth and tenth songs receptively), the intensity picks up again.

To be completely honest though, Duality isn't a mind blower of an album. In fact, I think it's pretty forgettable. Other than a couple basslines or chord progressions, none of the album sticks with me when I stop listening to it. The second problem I have with this album is the noise. Unlike noise punkers Sexgender, whose songs seem to flow without structure and have a very chaotic feel to them, FluiD's songs seem pretty focused and precise. The noise and droning that gets laid over top of the beats, basslines, and progressions just distract and annoy me from the quality music underneath.

Bomb-Ass Tracks: Iron Communique, Dread Futures

On a Playlist With: Death Grips, any experimental instrumental hip-hop

Overall Score

2.5

FluiD makes some pretty impressive instrumental hip-hop tracks with an experimental flair, but his delving into noise and drone music turned out for the worse. In the end although I didn't dislike it, Duality was a pretty forgettable album.

That's all for now, folks!

-DG