Californian producer Jase Rex’s preceding 2008 album under his Another Electronic Musician alias ‘Five’ in many senses represented his most dancefloor friendly collection to date, with Rex increasingly incorporating dub-techno, electro and even house influences into his previously IDM-centred productions. Two years on, this fifth album as Another Electronic Musician States Of Space sees that stylistic trend continuing, with Rex integrating an increased use of hardware into his productions, a transition he describes as a more tactile method of working. It’s certainly an approach that’s resulted in States Of Space being easily his most upbeat, optimistic and direct collection to date. While opening track ‘Late Monday’ unfurls things gently amidst rolling broken IDM rhythms and glacially elegant piano keys in a manner that calls to mind more chilled earlier albums from Rex such as ‘Patience’, it doesn’t take too long for the clicking minimalist techno pulse that anchors much of this album to lock in.
‘Fields And Axioms’ sees muted 4/4 kickdrums slowly bleeding into the foreground amidst a shimmering backdrop of distant bell tones and what sounds like heavily treated guitar feedback, before the emergence of whirring electronic textures signals a turn towards calmer atmospheres, with almost squeaky-sounding hi-hat programming shifting into sharp focus. Elsewhere, the langorous ‘Treading’ ventures closer to the sorts of shimmering, post-techno dub fashioned by Vadislav Delay or Deadbeat, before ‘Fnctnl’ ushers in a rich, warm wash of treated harmonium tones and rippling, beatific sounding electronics anchored around a fractured techno backbone that calls to mind one of Four Tet’s increasingly dancefloor centred productions. There’s also a wander out into more or less straight-out tech-house on the vaguely Detroit-hued ‘She Said’ that even sees Rex injecting some jacking elements into the rhythms amidst trailing clavinets and synth pads in what’s easily this album’s most immediately club accessible offering – certainly not something you would have expected from him circa 2005’s ‘Use.’ An impressive album from Rex as Another Electronic Musician that shows him continuing the stylistic trends in evidence on his preceding ‘Five’ collection, as well as easily the most danceable release I’ve heard from the n5MD label.
Chris Downton
