FLUORESCENT GREY - Gaseous Opal Orbs

Following Florescent Grey’s preposterouly titled, Lying On The Floor Mingling With God In A Tijuana Hotel Room Next Door To A Veterinary Supply Store, lets hope the content of Gaseous Opal Orbs is a little more intriguing than the tacky Photoshop artwork adorning the majority of its inlay.

This is an admittedly investigational album, forged from “time expansion and compression of pure sine wave tones” and “digital physical modelling” - put simply, avant-garde electronic music. The opening Chrono-Synclastic Infundiblum is as ostentatious as one might expect - considering its 11-minute track length and title – a sprawling mass of electronic sounds, squirming and fidgeting like worms in a whirlpool. It’s hard to tell if the beats are synth noises or the other way around, or if indeed there are any beats at all.

Ayhuascaro Empyreal is similarly dense, a tribal rumble in the jungle – quite similar to the works of Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) in its improvisatory nature. The gooey mess bleeds into the following track, where proceedings slow to an ambient crawl – if I’m honest, at this point I’m going with the experiment, but it’s not one that I’m personally deriving a great deal of pleasure from.

Enter Physically Modelled Theme For Children, which thankfully disembarks to add deep reggae grooves into the equation. This element gives the music a sense of purpose and orientation – the fact that Fluorescent Grey’s music never really evolves is irrelevant, the idea is to just sit there and wallow in it, which might bring its own impervious charm to some.

Having said that, Gaseous Opal Orbs is quite often an album made to test your patience, the nonsensical chimes of Palette Swap Dub are horribly irritating, the whole shebang somehow reeks of art school pomposity, whilst the closing 11-minute mess that is Are You Aware Of The Pink Light Emanating From Your Naval is equally as wearisome as its lofty title suggests.

On the positive side, Molten Ghost just about gets away with some thought-provoking Aphex Twin trickery, whilst Celtic K-hole puts an interesting enough spin on the cross-generic relations between Celtic flute music and IDM.

Gaseous Opal Orbs with either exasperate you or enamour you, and there isn’t likely to be much room for compromise. Personally, I would say that whilst the album succeeds in waking you from your slumber - it’s certainly not just any old electronic album - regardless Fluorescent Grey soon starts to grate. This is not an album you're likely to want to pick up again and again – or even, again.



	FLUORESCENT GREY - Gaseous Opal Orbs
	5.5
	Record Label Records ~ RLR07 ~ 29th February 2008
	Following Florescent Grey’s preposterouly titled, Lying On The Floor Mingling With God In A Tijuana Hotel Room Next Door To A Veterinary Supply Store, lets hope the content of Gaseous Opal Orbs is a little more intriguing than the tacky Photoshop artwork adorning the majority of its inlay. This is an admittedly investigational album, forged from “time expansion and compression of pure sine wave tones” and “digital physical modelling” - put simply, avant-garde electronic music. The opening Chrono-Synclastic Infundiblum is as ostentatious as one might expect - considering its 11-minute track length and title – a sprawling mass of electronic sounds, squirming and fidgeting like worms in a whirlpool. It’s hard to tell if the beats are synth noises or the other way around, or if indeed there are any beats at all. Ayhuascaro Empyreal is similarly dense, a tribal rumble in the jungle – quite similar to the works of Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) in its improvisatory nature. The gooey mess bleeds into the following track, where proceedings slow to an ambient crawl – if I’m honest, at this point I’m going with the experiment, but it’s not one that I’m personally deriving a great deal of pleasure from. Enter Physically Modelled Theme For Children, which thankfully disembarks to add deep reggae grooves into the equation. This element gives the music a sense of purpose and orientation – the fact that Fluorescent Grey’s music never really evolves is irrelevant, the idea is to just sit there and wallow in it, which might bring its own impervious charm to some. Having said that, Gaseous Opal Orbs is quite often an album made to test your patience, the nonsensical chimes of Palette Swap Dub are horribly irritating, the whole shebang somehow reeks of art school pomposity, whilst the closing 11-minute mess that is Are You Aware Of The Pink Light Emanating From Your Naval is equally as wearisome as its lofty title suggests. On the positive side, Molten Ghost just about gets away with some thought-provoking Aphex Twin trickery, whilst Celtic K-hole puts an interesting enough spin on the cross-generic relations between Celtic flute music and IDM. Gaseous Opal Orbs with either exasperate you or enamour you, and there isn’t likely to be much room for compromise. Personally, I would say that whilst the album succeeds in waking you from your slumber - it’s certainly not just any old electronic album - regardless Fluorescent Grey soon starts to grate. This is not an album you're likely to want to pick up again and again – or even, again.