Review Summary: Alien music at its finest.
“Alien music” is a term that I tend to give to music that feels so eerie and esoteric that it's difficult for me to describe otherwise. It’s a strange vibe that is hard to characterize, but this album is the complete embodiment of this.
Tracks and ideas pop in and out so briefly that it feels uneasy. One minute there’s an atonal and dissonant beat, and the next is something else entirely as it quickly moves to the next track. The distinct tracker music elements alongside glitch makes things feel wrong, even if there’s an upbeat track playing.
VGA Host seems to be a one off collaboration of Ilkae and wwcarpen. I’ve heard the atmosphere and sound is similar to some of Ilkae’s work during the time, and some of it being reworked for Light Industry+.
Speaking of Ilkae, he does have a habit of making 30-40ish tracks, with runtimes as short as 30 seconds to 3-4 minutes at most. I’ll just go over the most interesting ones.
Wait Hundred is a pretty good indicator of what you’re getting into, for the most part. Dissonant and atonal notes fly all around, while a muffled drum beat plays in the background. Another Scared Bunny is pretty similar, but this track really gives me the uneasy and esoteric vibes that I mentioned before. There’s a lot of tracks that are like this, so be warned.
A big highlight is Furry Lawnmower. The beats go really hard, with there being an actual song structure. The glitch elements really help make this track shine. Fantastic. In the context of the album it's a breath of fresh air from the strange tracks before it. But there’s still traces of the previous tracks in it, which gives it variety and help tie into the vibe.
Ire of Rats is also another highlight. The background beat feels ambient, with the grinding chiptune keeping things going.
Resolute is a pretty unique track in this album, with there being an ambient type beat over a heavily distorted recording of a newscast. It feels more melancholy than strange, which is nice.
Last track I’ll get into is the closer, Cutting Grass. It's upbeat, and helps tie the album off.
Copper Lemon Zinc might very well be my favorite IDM album. It has all of the elements I like the genre for and more. The cryptic atmosphere, the mystery of how it's even being made, along with dissonant and atonal-ness everywhere. The fact that most of the tracks cut out suddenly adds to the atmosphere more than you would think. To be fair it's my introduction to these two’s line of work, but it's an excellent album as is.
Recommended Tracks: Another Scared Bunny, Furry Lawnmower, Ire of Rats, Cutting Grass, See Both Ways Loop, Castle, Resolute.
