Enigmatic Chicago-based hiphop producer FluiD has previously released collaborations with the likes of Selbst-Morder and Black Saturn on a number of independent compilations whilst also playing a steady stream of live shows across the US, with this debut album on new UK label Alrealon ‘Duality’ offering up his first extended solo jaunt. For the ten tracks gathered here, FluiD sets his sights firmly on the harder edged, post-industrial end of the instrumental hiphop spectrum, resulting in a distinctly moody collection that manages to deftly balance a sense of deep dubby swagger with the sorts of poisoned, steel-plated beats you’d expect from Techno Animal or Scorn. Opening track ‘DH-1′ gives good indication as to the sorts of menacing atmospheres on offer here, sending a deep growling live bassline crawling like a serpent beneath tense, tightly-coiled hiphop snares and the squeal of overdriven synths, the droning textures nearing the redline as they get pushed through all manner of filtering, before ‘AIC’ sees an eerie solo piano figure being gradually overtaken by funeral sounding hiphop rhythms, howling overdriven metal guitars and sinister oragn tones as the entire mix relentlessly ascends to a fiery climax. Elsewhere, ‘Iron Communique’ sees Black Saturn contributing processed and distorted MC vocals to a churning backdrop of sludgy overdriven guitar feedback, looped vocal samples and clattering snare breaks that calls to mind alt-hiphop supergroup The Blood Of Heroes’ fiery wreckage, while ‘Disrupting The Ghost’ sends a haunting tribal vocal sample looping out over murderously wobbling sub-bass and scalpel-precise beats, the resulting oppressive atmosphere broken at points by the emergence of bright, 8-bit synths. All up, ‘Duality’ is an extremely impressive debut album from FluiD that should go down particularly well with fans of dystopian, post-industrial hiphop sounds along the lines of The Bug, Dalek and Scorn.
Chris Downton
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