Fallen is the debut album of FunkinEven, and it marks the first release under his birth name. With a close-up portrait of his face as part of the cover art, you might expect Fallen to be his most frank, auto-biographical work yet. And, to some extent, you’d be right. Fallen is the perfect illustration of Julien’s artistic résumé. Each of its 12 tracks advertises a different aspect of his varied production style: the jazzy piano loops on highlight track XL, spiralling acid house on Kingdom and twisted breakbeat on Disciple.

Since 2009, the NTS affiliate and Apron Records boss has made a name for himself in rough-and-ready club music and through a series of intriguing collaborations with the likes of Kyle Hall, Shanti Celeste and Delroy Edwards among others. Here we see the artist in sharp relief. Yet Fallen is something of a concept album, soundtracking a “rebellious soul expelled from the pearly gates and forced to live in hell among mere mortals for eternity.” At first, this motif works. Menacing tones saturate tracks like Reciful and Jedi, while bright flourishes succeed in making Chantel and the aforementioned XL ascend to a higher plane. It gives Julien a chance to explore two contrasting emotional states, two contrasting sound palettes, and, most poignantly, two contradictory elements of his own personality.

Ultimately, the concept isn’t pronounced enough in the music. But while the distinction Julien draws between the gloomier and brighter tracks on the album isn’t sharp enough to fully realise the concept, thankfully Fallen is, at its core, a collection of superb tracks that bounce with an idiosyncratic energy, irrespective of any deeper meaning they might possess.

Alex Green