The nebulous figure who goes by the name of Turquoisedeath (theoretically based in London) plays drum & bass, as happens in the similar case of Sewerslvt. But, just like the case mentioned above, it is a convenient label, thrown in there to make it easy. In reality it is music fromubiquitous computing. That future theorized by the cyber-punk writer William Gibson in which discerning the real from the digital would have been impossible, in which no one could believe and yet here it is.
It is music that is born and remains on the internet, that of Turquoisedeath. Which, like an anomaly in the matrix, can draw from any digital source and suggest the codes of the most disparate genres. Use them and bend them to your expressive needs. His identity is almost unknown to us, but it is such because it escapes the needs of the real world.
It is no coincidence that the producer, in addition to his companions from the Breakers Gang, shares compositions with the South Korean Parannoul, someone who instead does shoegaze. The fluidity of the subjects in question knows no gender or geographical barriers.
And so we said drum & bass, but immersed in an amniotic vaporwave liquid (2814 above all), open to electronic forms of the beginning of the millennium (Royksopp just to name a name), but also to shoegaze and the more atmospheric and cut out. The producer couldn't find a better title than “Kaleidoscope” to expand the already complex and bright fluorescent world presented to us a year ago with the much appreciated “Se bueno”.
If track number 2, “Limbo”, between elusive breakbeats and a layering of synthesizers that sprout like mushrooms nourishing an acidic and constantly changing flora, perhaps represents the compositional peak of the album, the rest of “Kaleidoscope” dazzles and amazes for its narrative power and the way in which it architects an entire sound world.
From the drum & bass bubble of the various “Glimmer” and “Mirage” we then move on to the digital ups and downs of “Hold Thight”, and then plunge into a straight kick ride, into the underground flooded with artificial light of “Subterrane”. “Leviathan Sanctuary”, on the other hand, is almost equal to “Limbo” in terms of difficulty of the joints and evolutions, but sacrificing some unsolvable equations in favor of a daring and stunning enthusiasm.
Before the deconstructed and unpredictable conclusion entrusted to “Underneath”, we come across “So Far Away”, a gem embellished with gaze and post-rock inspirations. Not only because of the insistent, clear guitar playing, but also thanks to the use of elven choirs a-là Sigur Ros.
The further prodigy of “Kaleidoscope” is represented by the fact that its complicated, even convoluted nature corresponds to an immediacy capable of striking at first listen. You press play like you accept the red pill. You swallow and never come out again.
23/10/2024
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM