Hi, this is (the new and improved) Flume

Just in time for spring, Flume has released a surprise new mixtape (his first release since 2017). What perfect timing. The warmer months means the beginning of an onslaught of deep tropical house remixes by Scandinavian alpha males permeating radio stations and Spotify playlists alike. Hopefully Flume can offer us all much needed respite from that.

The mixtape consists of 17 songs, which is on the longer side, but only clocks in at 38 minutes of runtime. Here on Hi This Is Flume (Mixtape) we see a little bit of familiarity in relation to previous projects. Flume’s tried and true employment of glitch hops and future bass is still there, but he delves far deeper into weird and experimental electronic music. If you’re harboring doubts about this, look no further than his song titles and their respective features. The fifth track is spelled out exclusively in symbols – something most notably done by electronic English musician Four Tet. The seventh track is a remix of SOPHIE’s “Is It Cold In The Water,” while JPEGMAFIA assists on the eighth track entitled “How To Build A Relationship.”

In general, Flume defies expectations with this album. After achieving large amounts of commercial success for his novel ideas and fresh features on 2016’s Skin, it’s to be expected that he would follow up with another release of commercial appeal that falls in step with Skin’s stylistic direction. While Flume continues expanding his commercial appeal, he approaches the job with a decidedly unorthodox approach. After all, he could have released an album similar in sound and makeup to Skin, rather than a mixtape. His efforts for pursuing the latter are rewarded. Pitchfork extols Flume for his incorporation of “newly glitched and more robust creations” into his musical repertoire, and also awards his mixtape a 7.5/10 (his highest rating yet). Pitchfork and music critics alike know that it would be naive to say that this mixtape is as well thought out as Skin was. However, perhaps the lack of precision on this record is for the better. The only thing that really matters about this mixtape is that, even if this album has sparse moments, the songs transition seamlessly into one another.

After Flume’s harried 28-second intro loop where he repeats the phrase “Hi this is Flume” over and over, “Ecdysis” is the first actual song. The title alludes to the shedding of old skin among invertebrates. Perhaps this is Flume’s deviation  from the musical direction of Skin? “Ecdysis” is replete with heavy, experimental trap elements, and serves as an indication that Flume is not messing around on this release. The transition to “High Beams” featuring HWLS and slowthai is beautiful and seamless. All delicate beauty disappears once we hear the enunciated anger punctuated by every single word of Northampton-raised grime artist slowthai in conjunction with a various assortment of ear-splitting plucky beats and bass drops.

The transition between “Dreamtime” and “Is It Cold In The Water? – Flume & Epron Remix” is stunning, especially after you’ve listened to the mixtape once before and can anticipate how his next track will play out. Towards the end of “Dreamtime” it sounds almost as if a Gregorian chant is being fed through a processing system that distorts it into sounding alien-like. As the song transitions, we hear staggering synths that pepper the so-called Gregorian chants build to a gigantic crescendo. Around a minute into the track, SOPHIE’s voice finally pierces through the block of noise as a respite from the chaos. Around the two minute mark is where things start to get groovy, as Flume puts his own spin on SOPHIE’s track and makes it more interesting. There is far more percussion within this remix than can be found in the original. Flume makes this track his own, and fashions it to be as abrasive and rigid as he pleases.

“How To Build A Relationship,” featuring JPEGMAFIA, might be the most dynamic track on the mixtape. Maybe for any other rapper, Flume’s musical texture demonstrated within this mixtape would be hard to sing in step to. But JPEGMAFIA is, if anything, a noise rap specialist.

Flume’s attention to detail is quite admirable, given how intensely noisey this record can get. On this mixtape, Flume circles back back to a sound developed on his self-titled debut, and further and further away from the poppy sound of Skin. Expect more from Flume in the near future, like his latest single Friends, out now.

Written by Erika Badalyan