Daryl Robinson has built a considerable reputation in IDM and ambient circles without ever making much fuss about it (perhaps a characteristic bestowed upon all IDM producers, given their seemingly universal unassuming nature).
Since debuting with the Solemn Grandeur EP on Abstrakt Reflections in 2021, he has released A Strange Dystopian Tundra through Rednetic Recordings, Even Keel on Touched Music, and the self-released Izanagi & Izanami, alongside compilation appearances for Neo Ouija and Neo Tantra and a steady run of coverage in Igloo Magazine.
Disjointed Personalities arrived on July 27th, five tracks self-released and billed as the opening instalment of a longer sequence. The concept is an interesting one, as Robinson uses random, anonymous vocal sound recordings to give each recording a sense of personality, albeit removed somewhat from its owner (hence the title).
The first track is also pretty much two thirds of the whole album. Clocking in at a solid 40 minutes, Rest in Peace Mikey Menace, an epic ode to the social media personality of the same name. The opening track contains vocal snippets of the title's subject. So we know who the personality is, despite its… disjointedness.
Anyway, nit-picking or our missing the point aside, this is an excellent opener and one that rewards those staying the full forty minutes. Fans of ambient IDM producers like Autechre and Amon Tobin will find themselves equally at home within the first composition as fans of breakcore's iconic Venetian Snares and the hauntological Burial.
The track constantly evolves, twisting and turning not just in terms of its sonic elements, which glitch in and out at random junctures throughout the composition, but equally in terms of its time signatures, and thirdly the mood it evokes. This makes sense, considering the number of influences or likenesses we can pick out here.
The entire first track reminded us once again why we love this style of music, and how it exists unfettered by the boundaries of normalcy or a need to fit in or be popular. It is both itself free while at the same time freeing others.
If length is the extreme within which we're operating, all 67 seconds of Do Not Assemble is a befitting follow-up. Freakout percs whirligig around the soundstage amidst a distorted and somewhat sweary monologue, interrupted halfway by a most discourteous vinyl spinback, before the drumming picks up again albeit not at the same speed or with the same pattern. A wonderfully confusing minute of life awaits the listener.
Next, we have Lamented, and the tempo comes right down to a SKAM-esque, glitchy hip-hop swagger; the kind of track you'd expect Rob Hall to be dropping into his mixes. A dreamy haze envelopes us while the bottom end delivers vibrations you'll feel in your vagus.
This low-slung braindance-y BOC vibe continues with Penumbra, where choppy percussion bustles around luscious, silken string pad swells and loads of swearing and shouting from the supplier of the track's vocals. The minor key that runs throughout gives an air of melancholy.
We finish on another magnum opus (although not quite as long as the first; only 15 minutes this time). Running Man's Benthic bass drones dominate the bottom end of the track. The vocal chatter becomes less decipherable and more frequent and intense, as Blade-Runner atmosphere's are built on noirish strings and ghoulish synth growls.
You can find it on Bandcamp. It is brilliant. So… you should.
