I want to get inside Angel Marcloid’s head, and here’s why: what’s in there has to be some kind of scientific wonderland where the best parts science fiction meet the precision of performance, and what blooms out of that – or, fairly, bursts, and at regular intervals – proves to be a sort of life-path, no matter what it is, no matter when it happens. As Fire-Toolz, as MindSpring Memories, as Nonlocal Forecast, Marcloid follows imagination to its most illogically logical endpoints and documents it all – the process, the journey – through sound, the results of which prove to be as endlessly fascinating as they are entertaining and, indeed, possibly even instructive. Marcloid’s is the kind of music that only the most open-minded can make, and anything Marcloid releases can be seen as a template, or maybe more appropriately as an example of what can happen when restrictions are eschewed in favor of sheer wonder. It helps, too, that Marcloid’s work is engaging as hell.
Nonlocal Forecast definitely sounds like a Fire-Toolz offshoot, what with the gorgeous MIDI compositions and brilliant guitar and absolutely stupid fretless bass. The change of course comes in the lack of blast beats and screamed vocals, the rage stripped in favor of more laid-back textures – the promo copy from Hausu Mountain drops the bomb that Holographic Universe(s?)! falls “squarely in the realm of retro Weather Channel–inspired smooth jazz fusion, intricate prog, and expansive new age arrangements.” Weather Channel, Nonlocal Forecast? Where are we?! Anyway, since I’m apparently waking up from a coma, this should come as no surprise to anyone who copped the also-friggin-remarkable Bubble Universe! from last year, which I no doi wrote about from the LATE GREAT Tiny Mix Tapes. This one, however, has an implied – well, questioned, but definitely implied – plural on “universe”: Universe(s?)!
Of COURSE the multiverse factors into Holographic Universe(s?)!, as the entire thing acts like an in-between space of reality where it’s difficult to pin down where/when/how you are and how you must relate to your surroundings. Imagine looking right in front of you and seeing one reality, one you recognize, if perhaps through a veil of uncertainty, then turning around and perceiving a completely different, alien, unrecognizable reality, strange yet comforting if not quite comfortable. That’s the vibe of Holographic Universe(s?)!, like it’s the soundtrack to what shouldn’t be there but is, and is so frictionless and agile that it fires off and makes sense in every possible permutation of existence. Is three-dimensional space a hologram across a two-dimensional surface? Marcloid as Nonlocal Forecast asks that question, and seriously! And that question, in my mind, is never answered, as processed sound flattens against reality’s screen, then explodes outward in tactile form. It’s both/and, Schrödinger ex machina ad infinitum! Get me?
Cool it. What you need to know is that Holographic Universe(s?)! is, like many Angel Marcloid productions, an unrelenting assault on the pleasure centers of your brain. It’s another seemingly master class in wrangling the complex and making it sound effortless, in presenting wildly difficult concepts in layperson’s terms. Experience it in full – take it from me, you should set aside some time and listen to this whole thing at once, on headphones.
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