HLFMN
You’re Shifting Now

LA RECENSIONE

It would be a mistake to define HLFMN (Half Man) merely as an electronic project, especially after listening to his latest album: You're Shifting Now.

It is a project that indeed includes music, but also experimentation and, above all, extremely interesting themes.

In fact, keyboards and synthesizers, percussion and drum machines, electronic effects and ambient sounds, distant echoes and distorted samples take the listener on a unique journey of sensations and impressions, through which one feels lost between good vibes and heavier atmospheres, masterfully interspersed.

This is immediately evident, starting with Dance which offers dreamy and light vibrations through a 100% electronic style, while the following Yin and Gypsy Girl convey more unease and use more oriental sounds.

Or yet Seismic Love, more melodic and undoubtedly the most pop track of the album, characterized by a sound much closer to electronic indie, followed by Farewell which creates an almost floating atmosphere through ever-evolving echoes, or by Volcano which, right after the very brief interlude of Relief, changes the game by creating restlessness through pounding bass and more imposing rhythms.

Continuing with Go Out (another brief calm interlude) and People From the Woods in which the artist introduces much more serene ambient components, followed by Into the Silence, distant and muffled, dominated by the piano.

Scandinavia part. 1 and Scandinavia part. 2 recall the style of Moby, characterized by distant choirs and ever-growing rhythms in the foreground.

Far is minimal and very zen, leaning towards post-rock, while Monastery reintroduces oriental sounds this time mixing them with decidedly techno synths.

A Sunset uses samples that present sounds from nature (mainly the sound of crickets), while All is Light is clear and combines a very sweet piano with intense vocalizations, and finally Endless Game closes the record in a neoclassical style contaminated by yet another oriental parenthesis.

Ultimately, a complex but extremely enveloping and intriguing album.