Reviews 254: ind_fris
Much of my time over the past few months has been spent exploring the dreamy fusion and house landscapes of ind_fris, the Osaka based musician and producer who runs Scaffolder Recordings and who has operated the nomadic 異レギュラ (iRegular) party throughout Japan since 2010. As a high school student in the US during the mid 2000s, ind_fris discovered the Digital Performer DAW by MOTU, which was the genesis of his interest in songwriting and production. Over the years, he patiently honed his craft, also using the iRegular party to further explore new sonic worlds and take in increasingly diverse influences. In 2017, he started Scaffolder Recordings, using it to shine a light on like minded travelers as well as release his own work, which has thus far proceeded across three volumes carrying the title Portfolio. Each of these cassettes flows like a balearic mixtape in the most classic sense, with ind_fris combining mediterranean atmospheres, deep house expanses, exotic fusion journeys, new age dreamspells, future jazz zone outs, dance floor psychedelics, city-pop enchantments, and 90s chill-out grooves to delirious effect. And he continues inhabiting and expanding on these musical environments with his newest (and first) LP Sink in, a romantic seaside adventure built from aquatic guitar shimmer, analog electronic warmth, and vintage Rhodes magic.
ind_fris - Sink in (Scaffolder Recordings, 2019) The title track sees wavefronts of droning ocean mesmerism surrounding deep house pads and squelching synth textures. Crystalline pings and gemstone glimmers pan around colorful sea creature while strange liquids boil and bubble...as if ind_fris is rendering the microcosmic ecosystems of a primordial tide pool into sound...all while bass pulsations weave deep sea lullabies and acoustic guitars swim through mirage hazes. And high in the sky, new age synthflutes overlap with joyous bird chatter and long arcs of screaming feedback. The swelling orchestrations and foggy symphonics of “Guitar under water” surround a gently jacking kick beat while repeated washes of euphoric sound crash against faraway seashores. 303s swim through mermaid kingdoms while skittering snare static morphs through dubwise delay fx and everything seems to rotate about some hidden center, with swirling vortices contracting while building in velocity as dreamworld synth leads are buried under layers of murk. The titular underwater guitar flows on rainbow currents and sunlight filters down through the water’s surface, with the aching six-string runs cycling endlessly through heart-throb hooks and post-rock ecstasies. Later, a beatless expanse of aquamarine ambiance is followed by an ascendent climb towards swaying twilight exotica, with stuttering broken beats, panoramic rimshot rhythms, boiling acid lines, and layered shakers pulling the body into deep dance hypnosis while piano leads glisten on currents of ether.
“Wave transition” starts in a world of hippie beach folk, all dusty acoustic guitars and relaxed hand drums locked into an Ibizan sway while oscillating lasers and spiraling space synths suffuse sampled wave crashes. Big bulbous basslines dance in the distance as ind_fris slowly yet magically morphs everything towards a floating house epic, replete with hypnotic shaker motions and acid lines that sound like they are beamed in from a different dimension. At some point the rhythms vaporize, leaving behind a golden new age glow and intertwining layers of electro-acid, rainforest percussion, and filtering synth vocalisms. But the bubbling basslines soon fade back in, bringing with them a pillowy kick drum locked into a four-four glide. There’s an ethereal dream logic at work as the song flows effortlessly between distinct yet blurred movements, sometimes seeing pianos soloing softly while crazed fx sing out like alien birds, other times letting chewy 303 lines chug through aqueous expanses while hats and snares lock into a jazz-kissed break. The energy escalates once claps start cracking through the air, with the song flowing ever closer to 90s ambient dancefloor perfection as radiant ivory melodies seek out the heavens. And all throughout the stereo field, a morphing talkbox lead wavers, breaths, and stokes the heart with nostalgic melodic magic…the whole thing coming off like Peter Frampton scoring a tropical sunset using the sonic vocabulary of DJ Sprinkles-style deep house.
The rhythms of “Airplane going nowhere” are carried by jazz-wise snares, propulsive shakers, and storming kick beats reduced to a pitter-patter pulse. Infinite echo hazes smear around doo wop basslines and guitars and pianos are woven into a web of diamond refraction, their melodious crystal liquids and late-60s fusion riffs blurring into indistinction. An accordion sings songs of the sea and brings a perfect touch of mediterranean magic while crazed oscillations sometimes obscure the mix. And the air is thick with salt and the smell of the see as beautiful ships unfurl their sails against a sunburst sky and bass guitar romances intertwine with aching reed melodies above a joyous balearic glide, one that evokes roller skating down a summer boardwalk within the romantic haze of youthful nostalgia. Then in “Mean time”, a tick-tock percussive pulse of bell tones and mid-bass drum taps is surrounded by deep blue hazes and oceanic riff cycles, with guitars swaying through a stormy breeze. Rays of sunshine break through the swirling shades of grey and an exotic drift emerges, created from galloping octave basslines and shuffling drum hypnotics dominated by brushed snare accents. There’s a moment where the track fades into a beatless float, wherein panning sonar pings are obscured by searing currents of noise. Rhodes pianos mimic new age flutes while moving through psychedelic oscillations and as the basslines build in urgency, they return us to a world of groovey tropicalia, though everything sounds progressively submerged within an oceanic dream fog.
Stars shoot though the night sky and lackadaisical hand drums generate an equatorial pulse in “Moon inside me,” while a triangle splashes metal radiance across the mix. Laser flutters and incandescent drones give way to a downtempo future jazz zone out, with contrabass riffs locking in over a bopping chill-out drum groove. ind_fris’ piano playing is loose and free, with his oceanic chordscapes and dreamy leads heading nowhere in particular, and as tapped ride cymbals are cut-up and layered, sickly streaks of synthesis bend across the spectrum and aquatic pads ascend through sharp attack slopes before decaying like a polychrome mirage. The final track here is an instrumental rendition of the age old standard “Blue moon,” which starts with color morphing wah wah melodies descending over island breeze hand-drums. Then comes the melody…that familiar and prototypical 50’s progression, all heart and soul magic and ice cream colorations dancing within a tropical paradise and carried by screaming organs, frying synthesizers, and fluttering guitar chords. The mixture of 50’s jazz and blues romance and South Pacific exotica recalls nothing so much as the late 70s work of Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki, and Tatsuro Yamashita, especially the trio’s Pacific…just heart-warming sonic magic that sweeps the spirit away to some faraway beach locale where palm trees sway in a warm breeze and impossibly blue water laps against a short of sparkling white sand. As things progress, the guitars space out, leaving behind the touching jazz ascents while flowing into post-rock psychedelia, with dreamy-delay fx carrying the six-string vibrations towards a moonrise horizon.
(images from my personal copy)
