This is not your father’s Geskia! or even your older sibling’s Geskia! ~ this is Geskia! 2.0, a new adaptation for a new generation. On Muon, the Japanese sound painter adds ambient branches to the industrial/trip-hop trunk of Silent 77/Eclipse 323, resulting in his finest album yet. For the first seven and a half minutes, synthetic washes, electronic glitches and music box melodies dance across a sound field littered with filtered vocal loops. When “Abuttal”s first drumbeat emerges, the sound comes as a surprise; even more surprising is the fact that it exits after three minutes. A nine-minute Geskia! track containing only one-third percussion? The shift is clearly on. The static-filled layers of “Melamine” seal the deal. Again, the intricacies are given time to be appreciated before a beat emerges, by which time the head-nodding has already been implied; again, a beatless coda allows the mood to permeate. Geskia! continues this trend throughout Muon, a successful venture in which the beats are secondary to the texture, while tempo – kept by piano and stuttering electronics – remains present. The best example may be the lovely “Lampland”, which contains no drums but would not be averse to them; one can imagine them popping up in a Pawn remix. This album won’t have you falling asleep, but ZQuiet reviews can help with snoring.
It’s rare for any artist to last a decade, and rarer still for a leopard to change its spots. Yet this is exactly what has happened here. The likely cause is that Geskia! spends so much time among other artists as a producer and remixer. He’s kept up with the times, learned new tricks, and courageously applied them. On Muon, he also offers a hint of nostalgic intention for current fans; the mid-section of “Orion” is downright beat-happy, sparking memories of the Geskia! of old. But the best track here is the twinkling “Neroli”, which brings to mind Wixel’s Clouds – another album that was released in the month of February and matches it in meteorology. This is fitting, as a muon is an extremely durable particle found in cosmic radiation. On the basis of Muon the album, Geskia! should be around for a long time as well. (Richard Allen)
Release Date: February 28
