Review Summary: In which chillwave gets a case of the wubs
ChrisB.’s
Triangular Objects isn’t a new idea by any stretch. It’s pretty much what’s come to be known as “glitch” mixing with chillwave tendencies and the big wobbles which have come to be associated with the American dubstep movement, and it’s been done before. Not that it’s necessarily bad - at least it hasn’t been done to death, and what music has come out of the style has typically been very good. Listeners should draw parallels between ChrisB. and artists like Robotic Pirate Monkey and Minnesota, though ChrisB. has fewer balls-to-the-walls all-out ideas than most of his ilk. Basically, you should be going into this expecting some chilled-out, glitched-out, somewhat wobbly downtempo bass music, and if there’s anything you’d like to get out of it that doesn’t fall within the general area of the above statement chances are you’ll be disappointed.
I may be coming down on the EP just a tad too hard, though, as it’s an excellent release even though it happens to be a bit limited in scope and ideas. For one, ChrisB. knows how to craft a lush soundscape. It’s easy to be immersed in the slowly throbbing basslines and clicky drums, and robotic wobbles aside all six songs are full of life. Even the wubs are interesting - rather than smash around like a drunk frat-boy swinging a mace, they move along with a refined, teetering edge. “Space Dust” is an excellent example of the mood of
Triangular Objects. Its bassline is all-consuming and loud (though it never becomes obnoxious), its nasally, watery synth riff sets a laid-back tone, and the piece as a whole is just a bit disorienting, enough to fall under the glitch/chillwave umbrella.
Of course, there’s still the persistent feeling that the EP is a tad too homogenous for its own good. When every song falls into the same confined area in terms of genre definitions, it tends to hamper the release as a whole. And, to be frank, in this case it does - I don’t see this EP having much lasting value. However, given its limitations,
Triangular Objects succeeds remarkably. Though it’s most likely going to be forgotten in a number of years, in this moment its combination of chillwave, wobbles, and glitchy goodness are quite excellent, and should be appreciated for how good they really are.
