| It’s a credit to any artist if they are able to realize a creative vision strong and unique enough to be identified by their own style. However, once defined, it can be a delicate balance between maintaining such a vision and innovating it. Eliot Lipp has certainly found his niche within the vast reaches of electronic music, but The Outside is almost weakened by relying too heavily on the same sonic palette that showed up in his 2006 release, Tacoma Mockingbird. Certainly, that palette is worthwhile; it is built on full sounds compiled from pulsing synths, melodic arcs, and hip-hop influenced rhythms. The songs are rarely extraordinary, but they do manage to be good enough for a particular moment - while not exactly remaining powerful enough to create their own moment. Lipp’s music has a very electric sound, clearly sprung from a life of video game soundtracks, sampled music and hours of digital composition. “The Area” incorporates a nice break beat with the squealing treble of what sounds like electrocuted water droplets, and then throws on a gentle piano. As the tracks assemble, break apart, and reorganize themselves, they tend to lose focus; however, Lipp is usually adept enough to bring back the hooks that work best, such as the piano line he returns to in “The Area.” The opening track, which shares its name with the album’s title, relies on a driving synth progression to channel a sound that evokes chords played on an organ. While Lipp fiddles with the high-end sounds eeking out of his equipment, the song begins to sound like the theme music to an old-school arcade action game. Lipp refuses to bring the tone into darker realms, and the constant, upbeat keyboard melody begins to take on heroic proportions. “Beyond the City,” halfway through the album, begins like an 8-bit funk song. Then these cheesy harp synth sounds come in, and the mood is smashed: it begins to make a listener feel like he should be in a club with a vapid-sounding name like “Aqua”. A muted house/techno beat seems to squish the funk when the whole affair begins to mesh together into a nice little number. “See What It’s About” sounds like it was already made on Tacoma Mockingbird, though other songs, like “7 Mile Tunnel”, manage to fit into a relaxing mood without losing the listener completely. The album gives me visions of concentric circles or geometric pulsations. (Is it obnoxious to say that it would go well with a screensaver?) Despite the upbeat nature of the album, it still doesn’t seem to be a sunny affair. The Outside is an album that could put you into sleep mode, but not in a bad way. - Soundcheck |
