Mechanomorphic - Mr. Bill

"Mechanomorphic" hosts a massive cover art, a massive 18 song tracklist, and a massive 20 distinctive collaborators.

Its creator, Mr. Bill, is a well-known experimentalist, and he turns to a more bass-infused approach in lieu of his typical IDM style for his first album on Monstercat. And the switch is well-received—"Mechanomorphic" brings a fresh new style to bass music, with Mr. Bill's wonky style always visible between the lines, combined with the styles of the mammoth collaborator roster in his wake. A diverse project, to be sure, "Mechanomorphic" encompasses a set of coherent, substantial ideas, allowing the album as a holistic project to flourish in its variety and also its quality. It genuinely feels like Mr. Bill has sacrificed nothing in his esteemed quality for this project: his classic sampling style; his rich synthwork; his renowned sound design; or his ability to produce pretty much anything to a high standard whilst still keeping it quite noticeably Mr. Bill. And, suffice to say, it's all bops and no bumps (well, mostly—the two Zebbler Encanti Experience collabs weren't really my thing). Plenty of genres—bass house, techno, psytrance, halftime, dubstep, etc—and not one of them isn't consistently good. To me, that in itself is an achievement. What makes "Mechanomorphic" one of the strongest albums of 2024, though, is the track quality itself. To have 18 tracks, to have 18 pristine tracks compacted into one monstrous project, each one a satisfying experience in itself, each one sufficiently different and each one scoring high on both the production and replayability scales? Now that, that is the true achievement. And the collaborator list helps a lot, because each added producer is well-respected themselves, blending their styles with Mr. Bill's own in a way that adds innovative ideas without detracting from Mr. Bill's own style (and that's definitely a good thing, seeing as out of 18 tracks, only two of them are solo tracks, so it's good to see Mr Bill's own style shine through at all times).

There is, however, a clear flaw that takes "Mechanomorphic" down a notch—that being the severe lack of cohesiveness. Sure, you can enjoy each track individually, no problem, but the album fails to justify why it should be an album, feeling like a collection of 18 random tracks rather than a fully-fledged project. There isn't even a coherent mood decision, and only the style remains consistent (thank goodness for that) throughout the full runtime. Ultimately, "Mechanomorphic" is a fantastic set of tracks, but it will remain just that: a set of tracks.