It feels wrong to fault the ambition of French electronic producer Erwan Castex on his third album as Rone, but had he set his sights a bit lower, Creatures might have been consistently stronger. The results are often unique and occasionally amazing, but also unfocused and inconsistent, preventing moments of greatness from truly shining.
As on too many electronic albums, Castex worked with a large cast of collaborators and blurs the lines between live musicianship and electronic music. He bounces from downtempo to glitchy ambient to shiny electronic pop, with baroque and post-rock influences sprinkled in. Sometimes his experimental tendencies and pop impulses mesh perfectly, but the sudden shifts between abrasive noise and New Age mood music are heavy-handed and clunky.
Castex should’ve narrowed down his roster of guests to focus on the more successful cross-pollinations, like the one with Toshinori Kondo on Acid Reflux.
Top track: Acid Reflux, featuring Toshinori Kondo
Rone plays Wrongbar June 2.
