Lone
Reality Testing

I return to writing about Matt Cutler and his electronic project Lone for a very simple reason: I've been listening to Reality Testing for weeks, a 2014 album that came out after that strange sonic kaleidoscope called Galaxy Garden, so I vent a bit on Deby to discover the reasons. RT represented quite a significant change for the artist compared to the style of the previous album, then resumed in Levitate, which was that of the jungle rave anchored to the nineties. In this case, however, the rhythms slow down considerably, partly picking up the discourse left with the first albums, clearly inspired by the Boards of Canada. If you can still breathe a hint of that dreamlike atmosphere here, we can essentially categorize the album in a style defined as "Hip-House," which indeed fits perfectly considering that the twelve compositions seem to wink at the black universe, yet still sift through it. The most interesting factor is that, in Lone's entire library, this is the album you listen to most willingly from start to finish.

The dances open with the misleading First Born Seconds, which seems to pick up the discourse of Galaxy Garden and more specifically the 8-bit suggestions of a Disasterpeace, but it's indeed a deception: Restless City immediately reveals the falsely rough nature of the album, with obsessive samples of a jazz base and syncopated rhythm, urban sounds, and vocal samples of a friendly speaker (black?). It seems like an innocuous game, but you reach the end with a certain curiosity. Meeker Warm Energy is already the best track on the album, and it's only the third considering the intro. The title conveys the idea well, hip hop beats marry beautiful pads and a cheeky synth that flutters cheerfully, making you reach the destination with a big smile. Aurora Northern Quarter steps on the accelerator with a terribly nostalgic house piano line and very BoC environmental sounds. 2 is 8 gently takes us to New York ghettos, still using a sampled base and winking at hip-hop producers, but the sounds are indisputably house, and the melodic exaggeration in a sense distances from the roughness of that universe to redirect attention towards a completely new form. The mosaic of pads in the final part is exceptional, but the compositional skill of the Nottingham emulator is undoubtedly indisputable. Airglow Fires takes the album's hybrid philosophy to extremes, even in this case of sample nigga, fragmented synths, and a sleek house base seem to proceed with perfect balance. The same happens in Coincidences, but it closes with a blurred garage house outro.

The second part of Reality Testing seems to partly set aside hip-hop atmospheres, like Begin to Begin which relies on more conventional house solutions. Jaded is a perfect track for a somewhat sophisticated aperitif, it wouldn't be out of place in some chill-out compilation, perhaps a bit pinky-up snobbish, but there are tweaks capable of keeping interest alive until the end. Vengeance Video is instead the most dance-oriented track of the package, of course always in Lone style, with a rather decisive beat and a bassline that seems borrowed from Rupert Parkes. Stuck is an interlude to introduce the closing track, Cutched Under. I'm not exactly sure how to define this choice, a female voice obsessively repeats "Reality Testing," submerged by drone sirens, everything soon plunges into syncopated, almost jazz rhythms. A rather disorienting conclusion compared to what was heard before, but the track remains enjoyable until the end.

This Reality Testing is a great piece of work, undisputed class further confirmed. I realized that, in terms of homogeneity, it is, as I already said, the best produced by Matt. 12 very well-produced tracks with the excellent idea of viewing Yankee sound through a lens typically from British electronics, all seasoned, of course, with Lone's appetizing sauce. An album I recommend if you're looking for something relaxing to listen to as background music, great to accompany a game of Mass Effect, as I've read around. 4 well-deserved stars.