Visionist - I'm Fine Part II

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  • This is the second Visionist EP that's conceptually rooted in the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. It may seem like a high conceit but it works, and beautifully. The sharply honed dance music motifs that swim in the vast space seem untethered from any club context, instead pointing in on themselves. Clocking in at less than three minutes each, many of the tracks have a discomfiting way of ending just as you expect them to peak. Take "The Way," a near-beatless track where a funky bassline and a crystalline vocal loop tread circles around one another without reaching any resolution. Or "Acceptance," whose sinuous synth lines and pitchbent vocal snippets stack up over a sparse kick pattern before dissipating. As on the first volume of I'm Fine, Visionist uses vocal samples liberally. There are clear precedents to the pitchbent R&B lines, but Visionist's aggressive minimalism makes them more in line with Oneohtrix Point Never's recent work than Burial. Next to "Eye Try" and "Something Old, Something New," which have as much in common with ambient as with grime, "First Love" and "Acceptance" are more rhythmic and propulsive. The latter's dense thicket of percussion in particular offers welcome relief from the eerie beatlessness, but it's to Visionist's credit that the melancholic cloud never lifts.
  • Tracklist
      01. Eye Try 02. More Pain 03. The Way 04. First Love 05. Acceptance 06. Something Old, Something New
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