FRACTALS - Subtronics

Subtronics' debut album "FRACTALS" is very Subtronics, but not very good.

Released on his own label Cyclops Recordings, "FRACTALS" is basically just a bunch of briddim tracks shoehorned into an LP format—let's not even talk cohesiveness here. Whilst there are some cool ideas, namely the few switchups like the breaks of "Morning Coffee" or the bass house in "FUNcKED" and "Take Flight VIP", most of the album boils down to heavy dubstep. And it's not even tasteful dubstep, either; the objective of the album seems to be 'how loud and heavy can I make this project'. I do appreciate Subtronics' trademark sound design style, because it's reasonably creative and does have its moments, but I'm sorry, Subtronics does not wield it here well at all, often drowning it out with wall-of-noise drops and obnoxious sustains. I suppose, as a debut album, "FRACTALS" lacking production depth is excusable, but to me it lacks polish as well. It's not badly produced necessarily, just seemingly uninspired; most of the album is very in-your-face, and though the vocal features are fantastic—including talented vocalists like Nevve, Grabbitz and Flowdan—they are often murdered by the onslaught of abrasiveness launched from the drop sections, which seem to love to crash the feel of each song. The sampling is good, fitting in well with the wonkier sections, but again, it's often drowned out and/or feel slightly overdone. It's all very boisterous and loud, and most of it feels like it was built for festivals, exercising their thickly laid basses and their mildly irritating fakeouts and what largely feels like the exact same flow every time. And sure, it packs a grimy punch, but as an album it feels far too overenthusiastic, and though some of the older-school brostep influences are nice to have, many of the tracks feel like they could have been a strong, powerful banger, but instead were kind of just duds (looking at you, "Cyclops Rocks" and "Tuba Demon").

Yes, I've trashed on it pretty hard, but "FRACTALS" isn't all bad. Despite being overused, Subtronics' classic robotic, almost spacebass sound design does hold up through most of its runtime, and for a debut album, he's branched out just about enough to keep things somewhat interesting—although, yes, most of it is in his comfort zone, and most of it is quite underwhelming (especially the drops), it's difficult to get out of your comfort zone for a debut project; whilst Subtronics does expand upon his riddim style in "FRACTALS", I'd prefer to see him expand upon it from a different angle. The offdrops were pretty nice, and there were some nasty ideas (in a good way), and given some better diversity and a whole lot of polish, Subtronics does have it in him to produce a fantastic album—he isn't at the forefront of the heavy dubstep scene for nothing—but "FRACTALS" is definitely one of those albums for people who just want hits again and again, not much else.