- Longform leftfield techno tracks from one of the most brilliant minds in the genre.
- At the uncharted convergence between jazz, psychedelia, leftfield techno and improvisation, there is Hermione Frank, better known as rRoxymore. Her 2019 debut album Face To Phase shunned the dance floor and opted for a more nebulous, introspective sound world. This time, her annual creative hibernation (she spends each winter holed up in her studio) has thawed into Perpetual Now, an even more ambitious deconstruction of what constitutes club music, on Smalltown Supersound.
Though synthesizers (mainly the Nord Modular G2) and drum machines lead the way on on Perpetual Now, the music smudges the lines between the electronic and the acoustic. The blindingly bright "Sun in C" feels like watching the day break. Raw, shadowy noise in the intro gives way to chirping synthlines and croaking percussion. The filters gradually open as each element unfurls like rumours of sunlight behind the horizon.
Elsewhere, the synths on "Water Stains" call and respond to one another until they begin to sound like dogs whimpering. Both texture and tempo vary throughout these sonic voyages—think freeform jazz motifs held sturdy by downtempo grooves and leftfield contemporary club music. All four tracks are draped in clouds of raw noise from rRoxymore's collection of found sounds, which she calls her "spices."
These spices form bustling undercurrents of sound that shuffle spontaneously beneath driving rhythms. Each element feels like it's being assembled before your ears in real time, echoing the sprawling, long-form journeys of greats like Sun Ra and integrating her love for jazzy sensibilities into each dubby, hypnotic movement. On "At The Crest," guttural synths and reverberant clanging conjure a spacious, industrial atmosphere where anything approaching rhythm mutates before you can grab hold of it. "Fragmented Dreams" is all relentless forward motion. Fervent kicks evoke a jackhammer, unperturbed by the sudden introduction of an acidic pad or squelchy arpeggio before disappearing into an all-consuming void.
As of late rRoxymore has been wary of identifying as a techno artist, describing modern strains of the genre as being more "standardised" and "brutal" than ever before. The extended runtimes on Perpetual Now provide each of these pensive sound pieces enough room to tell their own meandering stories, with a dynamism that takes you out of time, placing you firmly within each boundless, everchanging meditation. At this music's core is an insight into the machinations of rRoxymore's mind: introverted atmospheres that happen led but not dominated by pulsating rhythms, fractured melodies and the intimate sounds of her own personal world around her.
Tracklist01. At The Crest
02. Sun In C
03. Fragmented Dreams
04. Water Stain