Mellifluous is the debut album from Bathysphere
Recordings co-founder Chris Cousin and follows a series
of releases including the Pickled Think EP
in 2003, an appearance on the Deep Water Recordings
compilation Indoor Shed and a seven-inch single,
Magic Shopkeeper / Kids, released last year.
One of the founding members of the Bathysphere Digital
Arts multimedia collective based in Leicester in the
East Midlands, Cousin has recently been officiating
as one-third of Chin
Chin. Yet it is with his solo project that he has
began to gain recognition. While his previous releases
only appeared on a small scale, Mellifluous
is likely to firmly establish SofaLofa amongst the more
melodic end of the electronic scene, alongside the likes
of Ochre or Gimmik.
Here, Cousin creates a rather sumptuous and effective
soundtrack full of delightful pastoral moments. As he
layers lush soundscapes over crisp beats and glitch-ridden
grooves, Cousin injects a certain element of pop into
his compositions. The carefully crafted melodies are
set against incredibly detailed sound structures to
create an impressive series of delicate compositions.
Right from the onset, this album captures the imagination.
While Packdressdance gently opens the proceedings,
Florence, which follows, sets the tone and
apposes the first stone of Cousin’s edifice. It
rapidly becomes obvious that each element is carefully
thought out and set precisely to affect the mood of
a track. Although the soundscapes rely on countless
particles, Cousin polishes them so they appear dense
and consistent.
The evocative nature of Cousin’s music partly
rests on its slight melancholic tones, but the underlying
uplifting aspect of the compositions certainly takes
this album away for vague comparisons to asserts a truly
personal approach. Cousin works with emotions as he
does with sounds, applying them with parsimony yet ensuring
that each section of this record is covered. Tracks
such as the happy-go-lucky Plinky Plonk or
Contact or the beautifully crafted Rain
or Ms Fortune push in a variety of directions,
but do not the least affect the general atmosphere of
Mellifluous.
On this debut album, Chris Cousin combines glitch, warm
soundwaves and sharp grooves into wonderfully evocative
sonic vignettes, yet his impressive sense of melodic
structures ensure Mellifluous remains captivating
from start to finish.
4.6/5 |
