Unknown Unknowns - Jonny Fallout - 2023
I was unaware of these unknown unknowns. I should have known better. Thanks to @JonnyFallout for the smooth groove. Here's some background on this cat:
Jonny Fallout is an electronic artist / producer of synthwave, retrowave and synthpop with cyberpunk flavor. When he's not abusing the upper limits of his machine's RAM, he's obsessively sampling cool noises, constructing new sounds, or remixing tracks.
Review of Unknown Unknowns from his Bandcamp site:
The Boston-based retrowave wizard known as Jonny Fallout marks his debut on Triplicate Records with the stunningly sleek 'Unknown Unknowns', which finds him defiantly enveloping the dark landscape of the present with a gorgeous retro-futurist shimmer, with extremely appealing and danceable results.
'Delete War' as an opener is a fine statement of intent, both in the energy of the composition and the badass anti-war title (which admittedly could be a small scale endurance contest over who can hold down 'backspace' the longest). We're treated to pretty flourishes set against a reliable Tangerine Dream-esque arpeggio sequence kicked into a mechanistic overdrive. Perfectly compressed percussion (spoiler: the LP has a lot of that) compliments the melody beautifully.
The following number, which has the honour of carrying the album title's name muses on the maximum point of power in a person's life, i.e. the present, with the repeated refrain: 'There is no past, there is no future, only now'. You can see (or hear, rather) how the concept of the record might've formed around this initial spark of brilliance.
'Perpetual Drift' will sound familiar to those who enjoyed last year's Time Lapse compilation, this time we're treated to an extended and gnarlier affair. Well, 'gnarlier' but not without the familiar Falloutian slickness. Every sound on this song and the album as a whole feels so stunningly tight and deliberate, it's a lesson in editing, sequencing, production and composition all in one.
'Saints in the Code' adopts a more traditional synthwave methodology with its sweetly sequenced.. well.. synths, complimented nicely with tasteful licks of electric guitar and pretty key stabs. 'Cybernaut' on the other hand, remixed from the 2021 Triplicate compilation 'Protozoa' is a wonderful mid-paced melody-focused banger whose meditative arpeggios threaten to meander into melancholy but never quite cross that line, though the depressingly titled 'Oceans of Plastic' comes closer yet. Perhaps the most experimental piece on the record, wherein disembodies and a steady 4-4 occasionally gives way to junglist breaks, all wrapped under a warm envelopment of synth-pads.
The lengthiest tune on Unknown Unknowns 'Hidden Language' features a propulsive beat and a nicely arranged extensive array of whooshes, pads, beeps... everything but the kitchen sink. An exercise in maximalist synthwave composition, colourful and fresh, a strong contender for the high-point of the record that truly dispels the myth of the second-side lag, though 'Interpreter of Dreams' seems hell-bent on raising the musical bar to further dazzling heights. An aural show-reel for Jonny Fallouts skills, borrowing components of the heights that preceded it, while reinventing the sound in the process. There's something the squeaky synth-bends do your brain that's hard to articulate in words. You'll just have to listen and do my job for me.
'Alternate Timeline', another reworked piece, this time from the 'Music for Dotted Lines' Trip FM compilation, and works wonders as a closer, both offering a somewhat more chilled final excursion than its eight brothers that came before, and dispelling the notion that a last track needs to truly wind-down, as the second half thumps off and takes to the skies.
You're not likely to hear many records so sweetly arranged and tightly put-together this year (though admittedly it's early yet). A truly inspired collection of heights and bangers from a proven expert in his field.
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