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Meet The Fauna, an album by Square Fauna on Spotify

Reviews 341: Square Fauna

The origins of Square Fauna’s beguiling sonic universe can be traced back to 2016 and a release on 12th Isle Records called Thoughtstream. Created by the duo of Dices and Flaty, the album was like astral drifting through extra-terrestrial landscapes and did much to plant the seeds for the plasmoid ambiance, splattered space music, aeriform dub, and new age braindances of the duo’s newest LP Meet the Fauna. This time around, Dices and Flaty have paired with the ever intrepid Firecracker Recordings, who I most recently checked in with via the ancestral ambient ceremonials and mystical folk spells of Mac-Talla Nan Creag’s The Sorrow of Derdriu and who also released one of the most insane albums of 2019 in Georgia’s Time. And though not completely foreign to this latter 2xLP’s worlds of electro-rhythmic fractal madness, with Square Fauna’s Meet the Fauna, Firecracker is decidedly flexing their “sofanaut” side by presenting Dices’ and Flaty’s spaceage explorations of exotic underwater environments, exo-planetary jungle ecosystems, and dystopic industrial centers overgrown with snaking vines and flora of every possible color, wherein pan pipes and Orb-ian reggae riffs fall like sunshine over hyperspeed IDM tribalisms; rainbow sequences slip-slide like melting starlight amidst globular blasts of static; freakbeat drum rituals splay out beneath billowing bubble clouds and haze-shrouded mermaid choirs; ghostly expanses of sci-fi lounge dub glitter with tones of metal and crystal; psychosonic acid lines swim alongside symphonic strings within a deep ocean paradise; future jazz rhythmics sway through sonar panoramas and laser light pistol fights; and post-classical fantasias are shrouded by layers of nacreous mirage mist.

Square Fauna - Meet the Fauna (Firecracker Recordings, 2020) The album opens with “Scrolls” and its aquamarine hazes billowing on the horizon…like new age cloudforms refracting rainbow light while panpipe pads smear into feedback. It’s a introductory float through the heavens, wherein galactic wisps of light wrap around liquid dubchord abstractions, until eventually, percussive squelch-sequencing fades in from the ethereal murk while kick drums work through frantic tap patterns. Pillowy bass pulses join in with the drums, shimmering ride taps are carried on a echoing breeze, and reggae riffs float through layers of seafoam…the whole thing bringing by mind to the fourth world dub experiments of 7FO. Later, as streaks of starshine synthesis waver across the sky before exploding through gaseous reverb, my mind drifts the Inoyama Land’s “Apple Star,” and by the song’s end, the paranoid rhythms recede, leaving playful dub chords and bleary eyed streaks of electro-ether. “Erasing River” follows and immediately immerses the body in a world of hyperspeed bop percussion…like jazz accelerating towards lightspeed…while awe-inspiring waves of mirage synthesis wash across the mix, with sounds evoking the motions of some ectoplasmic ocean. Dreamspace sequences diffuse into the scene with extreme portamento slides bringing touches of child-like rave magic and eventually, braindance squelch sequences and synthetic bass riffs jack in support of the unsettled energies and propulsive percussions. Melodies and rhythms alike filter wildly while laser liquids and siren screams swim through oceans of starlight and there’s a touch Heldon perhaps, especially as we settle into a proto-techno and kosmische freakout with the anxiety level cranked to maximum…though strangely, there’s a kind of peace to be found in surrendering to the subsuming cut-off sweeps and fractalized landscapes of ticking rhythm. As the track progresses, the drums completely devolve into a tapestry of clicks, cuts, and glitches while overhead, a shamanic synth master casts starlight spells across the mix. Then, moving towards the end, the beats completely recede for a outro of piercing noise wisps, buried temporal transformations, and haunted French horn reveries.

Insectoid drum arps tickle the brain in “Natives” while anthemic synth riffs puff air into the stereo field. Whip crack percussion accents and resonant bass squelches dance around the hyper-kinetic rhythm layers, mermaid choirs breath glowing vapors into the mix, and a fat-bottomed bass drum eventually enters the scene, giving the track of sort of IDM-tinged breakbeat stutter. There’s a compelling contrast at work between the rhythms and melodies, with strangely morphing cymbal patterns and textures of percussive electro insanity sitting completely at odds with the aqueous pad formations and subsuming wavefronts of angel ether. Imagine the underwater ambient house of Heard, though somehow pushed into manic future jazz territory and coming out the other side like peak-era Mouse on Mars, all buried acid lines squiggling and shimmering synth leads dancing on sunbeams while jacking drum rolls and abstracted tom fills mimic the conversations of tropical birds. Space age crystals sparkle like starshine, psychosonic snare cascades break free from the percolating rhythm cycles, and the entire groove tapestry is at times destroyed by bit crushing glitch outs, though harmonious sirens of the sea continue singing spiritual meditations that calm the spirit. “A Sense of Meaning” ends the A-side with a moment of respite, as the laser light freakbeat rituals of the previous tracks give way to a dopamine dream drift of ambient dub rhythms and melancholic synth slides…these downer hooks moving deliriously through galactic sparkle clouds and glacial pad breezes. The pitter patter of toms gives a faint rhythmic shape to the swaying narcotica groove, though at times even these drums recede, leaving everything to be carried by barely bursts of bass synthesis and dub riddim shadowspells. Melodic vortices overlap to create subdued harmonizations, distorted basslines growl beneath layers of dreamfog, and stargates open to vent strange gases from other dimensions…these synthesized smears of resonance the soar towards electronic ecstasy. And as the track continues its twilight float, my mind is pulled towards the recent ambient dub dreamscapes of D.K. and Foodman.

Flubby tom rhythms lock into a tribalistic robo-beat in “Access” while snares process through some crazed granular reverb effect, leading to asymmetrical whooshes of static that rush across the stereo field. Sequences of alien origin morph, filter, and ring modulate overhead, sometimes evoking electrified marble cascades even as they dance through lullaby motions. A classical kosmiche fantasia plays out deep in the background, wherein swirling organ and string orchestrations are buried by bodies of static, and the manic machine cymbals, rapid fire bubble bass sequences, and pounding tom-toms again evoke strains of Heldon-style prog electronica, as well as the weirder and more experimental cuts from Hosono’s Philharmony. And at certain moments, masculine choirs wash across the spectrum while futurescape arps flash in hues of neon. Then in “Union Shift,” angelic chordscapes merge with gemstone vaporizations while twinkling strands of starshine flutter over bassline sequencing. Splattered kick taps intermingle with laser light blasts, stuttering arp patterns and amphibian e-pianos guide a smashed drum sway, cymbals sketch out nervous future jazz patterns, and snares hit like machine guns through smears of gated reverb while distorted funk hooks reach into the third dimension. During a moment where the rhythms disperse, we are led into a passage of fourth world dream magic and eventually, as the kick drums return alongside the ticking cymbal panoramas and blasting snare rolls, the vibe is less intense before, resulting in a spiritual drift through landscapes of spaceage post-rock exotica. Closer “Alteration” is a classical fantasia buried in the detritus of forgotten memory…like a chamber ensemble from the distant past has caught by a malfunctioning shortwave radio on another star system, or perhaps a busted gramophone left looping endlessly into the void. I’m reminded of the decaying sound experiments of Basinski, especially as gothic choirs are evoked by overlapping threads of resonance, and at times, angelic laser cascades swell towards feedback ecstasy while sketchy static accents background the funeral progressions…almost like the buzz of a fly’s wings.

(images from my personal copy)

Square Fauna - Meet the Fauna - electronic Fourth World outing from St Petersburg (Firecracker Recordings)

From their native St. Petersburg, Square Fauna evoke a score for imaginary protoplasmic oceans, surreal, sepia-tinged space operas and Russian sci-fi folk tales; lush, green landscapes littered with the burned out husks of automobiles, military vehicles, and askew telephone poles no longer in use though marked by pools of water in which can be found the debris of modern society. Primitive kosmische electronics and vintage spacescapes cascade around complex polyrhythmic percussion. Ethereal mists of gaseous reverb are scattered by windswept synths and white-noise striations. ‘Meet The Fauna’ is as much of a cheeky nod to The Residents and Coil (or even Haroumi Hosono and John Hassell) as it is to the likes of B12, Black Dog, Richard H Kirk. A completely singular, modern sci-fi soundtrack for the discerning sofanaut. Written and produced by Dices and Flaty, St. Petersburg, Russia

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