New IDM electronica release from Fractal Architect

After a gap of six months we have a new EP from UK ambient electronica artist Fractal Architect.

Fractal Architect is DJ and producer Dan Watts from Bristol, UK who has been around the electronic music scene since the late 80s. His work has a strong taste of Ambient, IDM and classy electronica. Here’s a couple of tracks from his new Electric Mountain EP.

First, 1.7 Earths. It’s a lovely track for something with such a catastrophic title. I think the title relates to the fact that humanity is using nature 1.7 times faster than our planet’s biocapacity can regenerate. That’s equivalent to using the resources of 1.7 Earths.

The track opens quietly with an early morning dawn tone before the beats come in. The track gradually accelerates thereafter as synths come to sit alongside the beats. It’s all rippling utopia among the prospect of devastation.

Eventually, acid lines squiggle their way into hearing giving the track a bit more grit and urban sensations. But even then there’s still optimism and beauty at play.

Secondly here’s the title track Electric Mountain. This is the downer contrast to 1.7 Earths. Synthetic strings saw away unhappily. The track is dominated by the mournful thrum of the bass line. Beats are Spartan and everything is a bit pessimistic.

A keening wordless vocal tells us all is lost. An elegy for our planet. Much more synthwave than the electronica of the other track. This is Jean Michel Jarre’s Oxygene for the C21st. Nothing revelling in technology. Sadness is the key here.

Full EP to buy here

~ by acidted on June 21, 2024.