BFTT’s latest album Redefines, is both a sentimental review and masterclass in brooding bass, hypnotic undertones and futurist club. The album’s foundation is built from UK Bass & techno but fuses with pop and otherworldly dynamics resulting in some of the best electronic music I’ve heard all year.
I loved the artist’s description of the album as a sort of audio diary now viewed through rose tinted glasses and blown out nostalgia. I’m often guilty for this in my own life and recognised even in my most profound memories I was not all the way there. Samples cut from various tracks, YouTube videos and phone recordings are the basis of this; a time stamp with collected meaning and drawn-out emotion. This is prevalent in opening track ‘BM-15’, synths flux and spill; like trying to catch memories with your bare hands. ‘YDon’t’ picks up the pace, a psychedelic workout that fuses experimental sound design with BFTT’s signature bass explorations.
‘Feelins2’ uses sparse electronics and idiosyncratic rhythms in a science experiment gone wrong, or right depending on which way you look at it. Vivid images of mutations and lab leaks come to mind accompanied by the bright green slime you only see at the movies. The track manages to keep its power through an ineffable low end and flashes of warm fluorescent light. Then comes the futuristic dreamscape of ‘Suchblush’ acting as an interlude before another u-turn in the hyperpop leaning ‘Rezaelemass’. Arguably the albums highlight for me, combining broken beats, bubblegum vocal samples and alien electronics.
‘Disp’ encompasses my favorite elements of club music, from its functionality and emotion to that visceral feeling of hearing something new for the first time. Even after fifteen years of my daily dose of doof. The album then comes to a stunning close with ‘Apple TV’. Ambient became a staple in my listening during lockdown and has subsequently stayed put, acting as my anchor to the present and keeping me sane during days of staring blindly at a screen. The track ebbs and flows through thought, whispering silent encouragement; tying romantic melodies together with broken, laden promises.
