Stepping out of low-fidelity hyperspace and onto this planet in just the past year, ideism spins a refreshing take on lo-fi musical moments. With instrumental confidence and an obvious inclination for jazz, ideism blurs the lines between producer and composer, melting and stirring the his own compositional elements into a stew of late-night sonatas and foggy overtures. On December 14th, he released a 13-track cassette, Everblue, through Inner Ocean Records. The audible, soul-charged quality of the record demonstrates a venerable command of aural attitudes and emotional soundscapes.

Everblue is a pure gem in a sea of cubic zirconia. Eschewing the typical sample-focused arrangements of his contemporaries, Ideism focuses on note relationships and spacial dynamics. “Voyage” is a journey personified, reaching from the top of the frequency spectrum to the very bottom. It beckons the listener to fall into its cradle of saturated textures and tepid synthesis. “Night crawlers” develops along a gleeful crescendo, resting and slingshotting off of its natural cadence. Foley-laden percussion swirls in an omnidirectional dance throughout the mix, creating a dynamic space in which the track grows and breathes. “Astral Relaxation” is exactly what its name suggests; lush arpeggios and delicate chords ebb and flow into the front of the stereo space, rearranging and falling away with each downbeat. The crystalline patching and processing on the melody synthesis has a particular shine that resonates with just the right amount of vibrato in the ears.

While ideism may have only a handful of tracks in the public sphere so far, his musical aptitude is astoundingly fine-tuned. Breaking the sample-centric mold of his contemporaries, he successfully captures the audio-physical experience of lo-fi’s euphoric textures through entirely original composition. Having the backing of Inner Ocean Records on his second release only reinforces the implication that ideism deserves close attention from casual hip-hop fans and dedicated heads alike.

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