quilium – climatoGRAFIQ
Seattle has always been a city that breathes new life into the music scene, and the Emerald City’s, quilium, certainly brings a refreshing take on psychedelia and electronica. quilium’s fiercely unique, 26-song album, climatoGRAFIQ, is chock-full of riveting, intense musicality and meaningful lyrics about topics like accountability and environmental disillusionment.
Notably, track three, “tenaCITY” has a booming 808 bass drum and a peculiar piano trill that goes from pianissimo to very hard. Regarding the lyrical content of “tenaCITY,” quilium states:
“The building and maintenance of cities is an enormous testament to our tenacity and herculean effort to reshape our world… [A]ny future society that will actually survive will be forced to grapple with the current dichotomy between humans and nature causing a climate collapse.”
Song five, “CATwash,” is a parody to Rose Royce’s “Carwash.” Though the song is a parody, some very serious lyricism comes when quilium sings, “My job is to wash cats / A metaphor you dumbass / For all the dumb tasks that / Capitalism demands.” Outside of amusing lyricism, the song remains distinctively funky. “LAST LONGER (with CHAD.)” has a giant, metal sounding snare and a throaty, warbly synth. This tune serves as rave music with its disorienting instrumentals. The production is tight, but big at the same time.
Song ten, “step TWO,” has electronic music reminiscent of Phantogram or Purity Ring, with an 8-bit lean that sounds like it could fit in nicely on the SNES soundtrack for Metroid. It has a metrical bass repeating against lo-fi drums and a glassy lead. Overall, the song’s vibe is chill, and it would be great walking music. “waiting for an answer (with Rubi Pluto)” separates the ears of your headphones – there is something different happening in each ear. Between the phones is a void that swells over time. It is just busy enough to keep you from being completely lulled. “xd 203” is song seventeen, which seemingly has a Middle Eastern or Egyptian influence, showing quilium’s willingness to explore new sonic territories. “xd 203” has the most natural-sounding drums found on the entire album. They are paired with arpeggiated synthesizer and a mix that seems to breathe on its own.
At 20+ songs, climatoGRAFIQ is certainly a journey, but eventually, one comes across tune twenty – “Ridin’ the Bus.” Speaking from the peoples’ hearts, quilium sings, “We both know public transit should be free / But shit, neither are we!” The keys seem to be modeled after a Fender Rhodes, and the song has filter sweeps and phasers for an interesting juxtaposition of sounds. Two songs later is “SMOOTH snailing,” where quilium quips, “I’ll grant you we can’t demand more / From Mother Nature – she can’t stand us.” This one in particular feels as if it could be part of Flying Lotus’ Los Angeles. Among lots of production movement, there are wooing synth chords and crisp drum programming.
Finally, Song Twenty-Six, “Born Silent 2 (with Totes Ferosh),” is an epic end to an incredibly creative album. In this song, white noise and glaring, crescendoed synthesizer accompany an arpeggiated lead. There are percussive, muted guitar swipes that delay into the right ear. All in all, the album closer is wonderfully meditative and has excellent production and rhythmic work.
To conclude, quilium’s climatoGRAFIQ is a unique take on music in general, and, collectively, it covers and combines many genres and instruments, producing something entirely individualistic. This album is FFO Laurie Anderson, The Glitch Mob, and Com Truise. Lay in your bed and be mesmerized by climatoGRAFIQ – you can listen to the new release on SoundCloud.
Categorised in: Album Reviews
This post was written by Jake Sessanna