REACTIVEradio

Truth be told, when I was approached by Michael Mancuso a.k.a Esselfortium to review his upcoming CD “A Terrible Flood”, with his description of it being “electronic; some downtempo, some drum’n'bass, some IDMish stuff, and some things in between”, I was apprehensive — no, not apprehensive — I was a bit nervous that I was going to be subjected to 60 minutes of the same FruityLoops drum line, with one or two synth lines layered over top; you know, the usual whenever someone on the internet produces “IDM”. Call it prejudiced, but I’ve spoken with probably 20 internet-based “IDM producers” and my God, it was all the exact same: they created one little line in some audio production program, called it a masterpiece, and decided to unleash the horrors upon my ears. Oh, and all this while refusing to take any criticisms about their so-called “art.”

As I contemplated listening to this album, I weighed the pros and cons of being able to hear for the next month. On one hand, I wouldn’t be able to hear my girlfriend; on the other, I wouldn’t be able to hear my girlfriend. [Editor's Note: No, seriously Sarah, that's just a joke. Calm down. OK, please put away the knife.] Throwing caution to the wind, I made the decision to queue up one song. If I wasn’t either deaf or filled with rage after listening to one song, I would fulfill his request and review the entire thing.

Completely at random (I closed my eyes, and pointed to one of the songs on my screen), “The Airport” was chosen as my sample track. Repetitive drum line? Nope. Annoying as hell synth line assaulting my ears? Nada. Rather catchy intro? Surprisingly, yes!

Maybe I won’t have to cry myself to sleep tonight, after all.

This breakbeat-laced song was incredibly pleasing, and almost had a video game feel, but held back just enough to not make me want to find my Super Nintendo and bust out my mad StarFox moves. (Thank God.) The only downfall of the entire song (and this is a very minor nitpick, which may in fact be fixed in the final version of the track¹) is that the 50′s-based sound bytes that are sprinkled throughout seem to be drowned out by the bass drum at times, so it’s rather hard to hear everything they say. Otherwise, definite thumbs up!

The next song that I loaded into my media player was “Nälpordyh”, a quick 36 second interlude which brings to mind pictures of a very tranquil lake, early in the morning, as the sun is rising; sitting on the edge of the water, watching everything come alive as the day restarts. I should note for the attentive reader, that the title is actually “Hydroplän” in reverse which is fitting, as the entire song sounds as if it was being played backwards.

Directly following “Nälpordyh”, is “Kaianide”, another great melody layed over a very heavy breakbeat. As strange as it is to say, even with the most distorted synths (the good kind) on the entire album, for some reason it also feels like the most organic. I’m not sure if he intended it that way, but it just seems to be earthy; almost tribal in nature.

Getting closer to the end of the disc, “Urban Rainforest” has a great atmosphere to it; you can almost feel the rain falling down on you, as you contemplate why your girlfriend just told you she didn’t love you anymore. It’s emotional, and downtrodden, but curiously cleansing at the same time; quite a different song from the rest of the album — all of the other songs seem rather upbeat or if not upbeat, perhaps a bit aggressive — this one is unique in that it’s almost defeatist in nature.

All in all, while I wouldn’t necessarily call it one of my favorite albums of all time, considering I’ve never really listened to this kind of music before (in large quantities, anyways) I was quite impressed and will be adding it to my Zune. If you like melodies, breakbeats, emotion, or all 3, check this one out — you’ll be happy you spent the money.

Artist’s Website | [CD is still in post-production; no purchase link at the moment]

¹ – The copy of the CD that I received as review material is still in post-production phase. As such, there may be a few differences between my copy and the final product.