CD, Isolate Records, 2006
www.isolaterecords.com
Understanding experimental electronic artist Fluorescent Grey necessitates listening beyond the music, comprehending via an examination of its modus operandi, while overlooking inane and extensive album and song titles. “Lying on the Floor…” angles for critical favor as a conceptual wonderment, though the self-professed organic and rhythmic facets are generally dulled with an over-saturation of diced electronic twittering and garbled static chatter. “Grinding Particles,” for instance, could be mistaken for Mira Calix with a meth problem, and cutting up classics from the subcontinent (“Indian Classical Beat Sliced and Sautéed [Pt. 3]”) is hardly basis for sampling revolution. Although tracks blend seamlessly, the wide spectrum of sounds used in their construction seems ungainly, folding over itself while leaving haphazard edges exposed.
Initially, track progression does nothing to alleviate the sense of overstuffed composition. The second- and third-longest pieces (each ten minutes or more) are placed first on the album. As monotonous minutes of computer chirps, squeaking bells, splattered drums, processor trills and irregular palpitations tick by, the patient listener needs reassurance that the most intriguing parts of “Lying on the Floor…” arrive in the latter half of the fourteen-song disc.
Accompanying liner notes help to illuminate a few of the more experimental production concepts. “Liquefied Break-Dancing,” for example, is a percussive composition formed entirely from water sounds, and “Study for Live Drums and Piano Quantization” bumps along with a constrained trip-hop tempo sampled from live drums and piano. A refreshing injection of ethnic elements enters the mix with lengthy but solid “Kabuki Drum & Bass [Pt. 1],” and “Ragga Jungle Nagauta [Pt. 2]” makes a strong case for Fluorescent Grey’s future in cutting dubplates. The closing “Morphing Song” is awash with brain-twisting textural shifts, though ultimately Fluorescent Grey sags with the weight of too much sound collage glue.
[5/10]
— Dutton Hauhart