seven

fizzarum is a russian idm outfit recently surfaced on toytronic and art-tek label samplers. they are part of mu project that also includes the likes of eu, solar x, atom, novel23, etc and is a growing collaboration of russian musicians and designers working in the digital media.

after initial listen I had an impression that the sound of this album follows somewhat dry and overly mechanized style of idm, sort of "broken jukebox" wizardry. however soon enough I came to realize that only a few tracks on this album reflected that, the rest were full of gorgeous melodies and intricate sounds that proved to be quite irresistible.

something that I realized about this album is a certain very "sincere" style of the music. despite all the sound manipulations, it remains very tender and personal. all emotions are expressed in a simple touching manner. maybe a nice retro feel created by analog elements used adds to this impression, or maybe it's simple melodies that are never ostentatious, never repeating and always express a whole bouquet of emotions. this emotional sincerity and calmness framed in haywire of collapsing swirling percussion elements is a distinct style of fizzarum (not as obvious on their earlier "microphorus" vinyl).

I was very pleased to hear some processed vocal samples on "ursa-majoris" as well as "izoterica". the latter one fit so perfectly that I kept listening to this track again and again just to hear this sample. this line from an old russian sci-fi (I suppose it can be called that) movie stressed even more "retro-futuristic", almost nostalgic in this sense, atmosphere of the album. I would really like to see more russian samples used in later fizzarum work. for once, I have not really heard that many well-placed russian samples, also I think that this style will definitely gain a lot with addition of subtle voice elements (just listen to "synthetic form" by gridlock), and finally I still have to pay tribute to my industrial/dark electro background.

overall this album displays a wide variety of styles from cold minimal technoid sounds to sensuous melodies and analog idm splendor. most of the tracks are quite emotional, and I am sure that any attentive listener will be as impressed with this album as I am (and I hope that my national pride does not affect my judgment too much).