Since 2003, Danish electronic producer Jens Christiansen has previously released three albums under the Rumpistol moniker on his own Rump Recordings label, with this latest fourth album on Project: Mooncircle ‘Floating’ seeing him joining forces with Los Angeles-based vocalist Red Baron. It’s a collaboration that proves to yield plenty in the way of intriguing results, and while Rumpistol’s productions have always deftly straddled the boundary between more abstracted electronics and twisted pop, the addition of Red Baron’s vocals (often processed into curiously androgynous tones) adds more of a soulful presence to his tracks than perhaps ever before.
After opening track ‘Silver Lake’ sets the scene with a slightly eerie ambient swirl of field-recorded voices and swelling bass tones, distant soul harmonies building against manipulated whispers and icy synths, ‘Talk To You’ takes things more towards the sorts of fractured electronic soul crafted by the likes of Jamie Woon and Mount Kimbie as downbeat broken rhythms, bright synth pads and icy machine blips build into a dense web of textures around Red Baron’s smooth soul croon, the emergence of darker sub-bass tones hinting at the influence of dubstep rather than really venturing into it fully. Elsewhere, ‘I’m Not Listening’ sees a rattling garage-tinged rhythmic pulse locking in beneath Red Baron’s relatively untreated soul vocals, the harsh snap of the broken snares adding a welcome jagged edge to the soft-focus synth tones and murky bass drops that float and dart above, before the near-ambient ‘Dinosaurs’ sees crisp clear acoustic guitar strokes ringing out amidst a fluttering backdrop of digitally reassembled liquid-sounding percussion textures, icy phased synth tones and ghostly autotuned vocal harmonies, in what’s easily one of the most gorgeously understated offerings to be found here. A beautifully crafted collection that manages to consistently intrigue over its eleven tracks, ‘Floating’ is well worth tracking down.
Chris Downton
