• Basket
  • RA Store
  • Login / Register
  • Login
  • Register
Resident Advisor
×
Search
Submit
Did you mean
×
  • Resident Advisor
  • Magazine
    • News
    • Reviews
    • Features
    • Videos
  • Listings
    • Events
    • Clubs
    • Festivals
    • Photos
  • Music
    • Artists
    • New Tracks
    • DJ Charts
    • Podcasts
  • Search
  • Reviews
  • /
  • Albums

Fhloston Paradigm - The Phoenix

    • Label /
      Hyperdub
      HDBLP022
    • Released /
      June 2014
    • Style /
      Techno, Experimental
    • Comments /
      5 / View
    • Rating /
      3.0/5
    • Previous
    • Next
    Fhloston Paradigm - The Phoenix Fhloston Paradigm - The Phoenix
    Fhloston Paradigm - The Phoenix King Britt's Fhloston Paradigm first appeared two years ago with a 12-inch for Hyperdub, on which the Philly producer's heady analogue jams seemed intriguing but lacking crucial context—like an extended trailer for a movie we never got to see. Now, with The Phoenix, he finally gives us that feature film, with moments of stage setting, tender introspection and some pretty great action scenes. Inspired heavily by Britt's love of sci-fi (the name comes from The Fifth Element), The Phoenix has all the starry-eyed wonder and hammy melodrama of a genre archetype. And like so many sci-fi films, it has its ups and downs, balancing brilliant turns with more humdrum scenes.

    The transcendent "Race To The Moon" launches the album into space early on. It's a beauty: a revving engine of a synth line and some propulsive drums take it up into the stratosphere, letting it slip into a gorgeous free-floating breakdown where the synths twinkle like nearby stars. From there, The Phoenix has some trouble staying at those lofty heights, though it always remains in orbit. Many of the other tunes feel like variations on the same idea, going back to 2012's "Chasing Rainbows" (also included here). They're spiralling synth odysseys that sound like they're blasting off towards nowhere in particular, a wanderlust that can feel unpredictable or aimless, depending on your mood.

    Britt wisely breaks up those longer tracks with shorter interludes, mood pieces with little synth curlicues and garbled snatches of radio transmission. There's a kitschy sense of theatre in these sketches, which Britt almost drives into the ground with the help of a few guest singers. Pia Ercole, his neighbour, who he discovered by accident, shows up on several songs, from wordless cooing on the swaggering "Letters Of The Past" to full-on opera singing on "Tension Remains." The latter is just as overwrought as it sounds on paper—Ercole's wailing doesn't mesh with the album's John Carpenter-inspired mood. Rachel Claudio gives a fine performance on "Never Defeated," the album's attempt at pop, but the track itself melts into a sticky mess of warmed-over synths. Only Natasha Kmeto finds a happy medium, closing the album with the clumsy but evocative line, "Why is the measure of love loss?" repeated over some especially ornate synth work from Britt.

    Synthesizers are Fhloston Paradigm's best asset, and they make the album more about ear candy than content—The Phoenix is full of plush textures to pad all the chunky drums and sputtering analogue hiccups. But whether or not it can keep your attention is another story, and the album as a whole doesn't live up to its sci-fi conceit. There's something deliciously retro-futuristic about King Britt making space-age music with old machines, and it can be absolutely wonderful to listen to (check the nine-minute title track for a proper journey to the heavens and back). But if The Phoenix is that feature film we were waiting for, it could stand an edit or two. 
    • Published /
      Sun / 22 Jun 2014
    • Words /
      Andrew Ryce
    • Share
    • Tracklist /
      01. Portal 1
      02. Race To The Moon
      03. Letters Of The Past feat. Pia Ercole
      04. Chasing Rainbows
      05. Perception
      06. Never Defeated feat. Rachel Claudio
      07. Tension Remains feat. Pia Ercole
      08. It's All About feat. Pia Ercole
      09. More feat. Marlo Reynolds
      10. The Phoenix
      11. Portal 3
      12. Never Forget
      13. Portal 4
      14. Light On Edge feat. Natasha Kmeto
    0/
  • Popular reviews

    • Post a comment

      James Blake - Assume Form

    • Post a comment

      Leon Vynehall - DJ-Kicks

    • Post a comment

      Adam Beyer - Teach Me (Amelie Lens Remixes)

    • Post a comment

      Rewind: BFC - Evolution

    • Post a comment

      nd_baumecker - Panorama Bar 07

    • Post a comment

      DJ Sports - Akrasia

    • Post a comment

      Ossia - Devil's Dance

    • 3 comments

      Various - Life & Death On The New York Dance Floor 1980-1983 Part I & II

    0/
  • Comments loading

    0/ #262639
    • More on Hyperdub

      Hyperdub

      Label run by Kode9.
      View the full label profile

    • Reviews

      • Post a comment

        Lee Gamble - In A Paraventral Scale

      • 6 comments

        Nazar - Enclave EP

      • 2 comments

        Okzharp & Manthe Ribane - Closer Apart

      • 6 comments

        Proc Fiskal - Insula

      • 1 comments

        doon kanda - Luna

      • 12 comments

        DJ Taye - Still Trippin'

      • 4 comments

        Various - Diggin In The Carts: A Collection Of Pioneering Japanese Video Game Music

      • 2 comments

        DJ Tre - The Underdogg

      • 10 comments

        Fatima Al Qadiri - Shaneera

      • 21 comments

        Lee Gamble - Mnestic Pressure

      • 4 comments

        Klein - Tommy

      • 3 comments

        Mana - Creature

      • 3 comments

        Cooly G - Magnetic

      • 21 comments

        Laurel Halo - Dust

      • 10 comments

        Ikonika - Distractions

      • 32 comments

        Burial - Subtemple

      • 3 comments

        Proc Fiskal - The Highland Mob

      • 7 comments

        Doon Kanda - Heart

      • 5 comments

        Quarta330 - Pixelated

      • 5 comments

        Jessy Lanza - Oh No No No

      • 54 comments

        Burial - Young Death / Nightmarket

      • 2 comments

        DJ Taye - Move Out

      • 2 comments

        OKZharp & Manthe Ribane - Tell Your Vision EP

      • 7 comments

        DVA [Hi:Emotions] - NOTU_URONLINEU

      • 56 comments

        Zomby - Ultra

      • 32 comments

        Jessy Lanza - Oh No

      • 24 comments

        Babyfather - BBF Hosted By DJ Escrow

      • 19 comments

        Fatima Al Qadiri - Brute

      • 11 comments

        Fhloston Paradigm - Cosmosis Vol. 2

      • 14 comments

        Babyfather - Meditation

      • 4 comments

        Fhloston Paradigm - Cosmosis Vol. 1

      • 22 comments

        Kode9 - Nothing

      • 12 comments

        OKZharp - Dumela 113 EP

      • 5 comments

        Taye - Break It Down

      • 4 comments

        DVA - Allyallrecords

      • 15 comments

        Jessy Lanza with DJ Spinn & Taso - You Never Show Your Love EP

      • 5 comments

        Dean Blunt - Babyfather

      • 5 comments

        Various - Next Life

      • 8 comments

        Various - Hyperdub 10.3

      • 2 comments

        Ikonika - Position

      • 20 comments

        Various - Hyperdub 10.2

      • 3 comments

        Flowdan - Serious Business EP

      • 6 comments

        Kyle Hall - Girl U So Strong

      • 17 comments

        Hyperdub - Hyperdub 10.1

      • 16 comments

        Fatima Al Qadiri - Asiatisch

      • 3 comments

        Cooly G - Hold Me

      • 146 comments

        Burial - Rival Dealer

      • 17 comments

        Laurel Halo - Chance Of Rain

      • 17 comments

        DJ Rashad - Double Cup

      • 3 comments

        DVA - Mad Hatter EP

      • 32 comments

        Jessy Lanza - Pull My Hair Back

      • 8 comments

        DJ Rashad - I Don't Give a Fuck EP

      • 9 comments

        Ikonika - Aerotropolis

      • Post a comment

        Terror Danjah & Champion - Sons of Anarchy EP

      • 11 comments

        Laurel Halo - Behind The Green Door

      • 14 comments

        Kode9 - Xingfu Lu / Kan

      • 7 comments

        DJ Rashad - Rollin EP

      • 48 comments

        Burial - Truant

      • 2 comments

        Laurel Halo - Sunlight on the Faded

      • 3 comments

        Ossie - Ignore EP

      • 1 comments

        DVA - Fly Juice

      • 9 comments

        Terror Danjah - Dark Crawler

      • 20 comments

        LV - Sebenza

      • 2 comments

        Terror Danjah - Dark Crawler EP

      • 13 comments

        Cooly G - Playin Me

      • 10 comments

        Laurel Halo - Quarantine

      • 5 comments

        Walton - All Night

      • 15 comments

        Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland - Black Is Beautiful

      • 7 comments

        King Britt presents - Fhloston Paradigm

      • 9 comments

        DVA - Pretty Ugly

      • 86 comments

        Burial - Kindred

      • 16 comments

        King Midas Sound - Without You

      • 1 comments

        Terror Danjah - You Make Me Feel

      • 7 comments

        Cooly G - Landscapes

      • 10 comments

        Hype Williams - Kelly Price W8 Gain Vol II EP

      • 32 comments

        Burial - Street Halo

      • 22 comments

        Kode9 & The Spaceape - Black Sun

      • 6 comments

        Funkystepz - Fuller

      • 8 comments

        Ikonika - Ikonoklast

      • 5 comments

        LV - Boomslang / Zharp

      • 6 comments

        Terror Danjah - Undeniable

      • 28 comments

        Darkstar - North

      • 1 comments

        Scratcha DVA - Just Vybe

      • 7 comments

        Cooly G - Up in My Head

      • 9 comments

        Ikonika - Edits EP

      • 14 comments

        Ikonika - Contact, Love, Want, Have

      • 13 comments

        Kyle Hall - Kaychunk / You Know What I Feel

      • 31 comments

        Darkstar - Aidy's Girl Is A Computer

      • 30 comments

        Various Artists - 5: Five Years of Hyperdub

      • 4 comments

        Mark Pritchard feat. Om'Mas Keith - Wind It Up

      • Post a comment

        King Midas Sound - Dub Heavy Hearts and Ghosts

      • 9 comments

        Cooly G - Narst / Love Dub

      • 5 comments

        LD – Traumatic Times / Woodblock

      • 6 comments

        Kode9 & LD - Bad EP / Kode 9 - Black Sun / 2 Far Gone

      • 7 comments

        VA - Digidesign / You Don't Know What Love Is

      • 1 comments

        Kode9 & The Space Ape - Konfusion

      • 7 comments

        Darkstar - Need You/Squeeze My Lime

      • 3 comments

        Ikonika - Please/Simulacrum

      • 63 comments

        Burial - Untrue

      • 4 comments

        Kode9 + The Space Ape - Memories Of The Future

      • 5 comments

        Burial - Burial

    0/
  • Related artists

    King Britt
    King Britt
    Fhloston Paradigm
    Fhloston Paradigm
    0/
    • RA
    • Copyright © 2019 Resident Advisor Ltd.
    • All rights reserved
    • Privacy & Terms
    • Cookie Policy
    • Resident Advisor /
    • About
    • Advertise
    • Jobs
    • 24/7

    • RA Tickets /
    • My Tickets
    • Ticketing FAQ
    • Resale
    • Sell tickets on RA
    • Submit event

    • Apps /
    • RA Guide
    • RA Ticket Scanner
    • Elsewhere /
    • Watch on YouTube
    • Follow on Facebook
    • Listen on Apple Music
    • Stream on Spotify
  • RA is also available in Japanese. 日本版
    • RA on YouTube
    • RA on Facebook
    • RA on Twitter
    • RA on Instagram
    • RA on Soundcloud