Lone
Reality Testing (R&S)
12/20
Manchester-based electronic artist Matt Cutler, aka, Lone, follows up 2012’s acclaimed Galaxy Garden with his second album on R&S and his sixth LP-full, Reality Testing. It’s another wander into the realms of experimental and synthesized sound structures, but with his unique mixture of colourful videogame melodies now taking more of a relaxed perspective of early 90s dance and hip-hop as opposed to his formerly untenable, free-roaming expressionism. If Galaxy Garden was a trip to the cosmos, then perhaps Reality Testing is the return journey. Cutler has claimed Detroit techno and Chicago house were amongst the key genre influences for his latest record, and tracks like album highlight Aurora Northern Quarter make this clear. A striking drive of skewed 90s house piano fuels this aptly named number, referencing the fashionable Manchester microcosm and the city’s most vibrant musical sector; Cutler’s spiritual home.
The seamless meld of hip-hop and house in 2 is 8 is an innovative design, too, and one of the most progressive pieces on the album. Restless City is an invigorated chop betwixt the more subdued rhythms and synth glides of Meeker Warm Energy, and ambient opener First Born Seconds, and the previously released Airglow Fires is Cutler at his melodious best. In many places, though, Reality Testing slips by unnoticed. It’s peaceful and pleasant throughout, but on the back of such a far-out record as Galaxy Garden it feels drained. At times it sounds detached, even lonely. It is by no means a poor record, but we still think Lone is at his best when he’s locked out on Rainbow Road, speeding through the stars like a digital meteor.
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Words: James Balmont
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