Fluorescent Grey

Lying on the Floor Mingling with God...

Record Label Records/Isolate

With a title angling to be the lengthiest of the year (full version: Lying on the Floor Mingling with God in a Tijuana Motel Room Next Door to a Veterinary Supply Store , this debut album from Northern Californian electronic producer Robbie Martin as Fluorescent Grey distinctly takes its cues from both hyper-detailed sound design by practitioners like Richard Devine and the atmospheric sidereal sweep of lunar ritualists Coil. In fact, there’s so much tiny (and often crucial) sonic detail packed into the 73 minutes of Lying on the Floor that you’re likely to find yourself continually spotting new sounds on each subsequent listen, depending on which textural elements you choose to selectively keep track of. Equally as fascinating are the liner notes detailing the creative processes behind the making of each track.

While opening track “Crackly Shell” finds Martin fashioning an enveloping landscape using the sounds of a crushed eggshell as source material, “I Am a Photograph of My Old Driveway...” apparently involved him playing the track out of a boombox in 30 different locations and then stitching the various sections together to reform the song, resulting in its curiously multifaceted feel. Elsewhere, water droplets get morphed and reshaped into clicking breakbeat rhythms on the curiously beatbox-esque “Liquefied Breakdancing,” and “Morphing Song” shows Martin employing spectral analysis techniques to shift drums into pianos and barking dogs into showers of rocks—perhaps the most surreal moment on offer here. A strong debut that hangs together as a coherent listen as well as an exercise in complexity theory.

Chris Downton