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MH-233 Scientific American - Strong For The Future  After a string of successful production projects, Scientific American presents his Mush Records debut, Strong For The Future. Featuring ten tracks that capitalize on the fresh sounds and dynamic production of IDM without sacrificing the music's soul, the album mixes elements of electronic dance music, hip-hop, and rock into a single hybrid. With beautiful electronic compositions that could fit neatly on The Leaf Label ("Strong for the Future"), chop and paste hip-hop influenced productions reminiscent of music on Warp ("Between Urban Movements"), or classic vocal tracks that sound like the Flaming Lips produced by Boards Of Canada ("Drift in Place" which features vocals by John Atkins of 764-Hero), Scientific American has created an album that will surely be recognized as one the most expertly produced releases in the Mush catalog. |
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| Reviews Summary |
| A fresh ear and a deft programming finger - Earplug / so accomplished, it's hard to believe that Andrew Rohrmann isn't an old master - Textura / A skilled and instantly likeable producer - Delusions Of Adequacy / Beautiful and neatly layered cut-and-paste symphonies - San Francisco Examiner |
| Reviews | |
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| Imagine Boards of Canada pushed to a greater hip-hop extreme and you'll have some hint of Andrew Rohrmann's Scientific American sound; Strong for the Future is also less hazy and nostalgia-ridden than either Geogaddi or Music Has a Right to Children but make no mistake: Scientific American's album transcends derivation and impresses mightily on its own terms as it fuses sculpted beats and chopped voices into mesmerizing wholes. The album's compelling sound is signaled immediately by the melancholy weave of harp-like plucks and electronics in the opener "When It Was Ever Everything" but then impresses even more strongly when Strong for the Future fuses Bootsy Holler's sliced warble with sculpted hip-hop beats into a magical hymn. Perhaps Rohrmann's greatest strength is his ability to transform the familiar tropes and techniques of electronic assembly into eminently musical settings, a strength never more evident than in his treatment of vocal material. Holler re-appears in "The Seas Are the Skies" the bright flares of her siren whispers paired with dramatic string and piano atmospheres that grow majestically into an oceanic mass. Rohrmann finds room for a slightly more conventional vocal approach in "Drift in Place" when he chops a vocal from 764-Hero's John Atkins into stuttering electro-funk. By contrast, "Million Lines (Slow Fade)" presents an incredible micro-symphony of fragmented babble alongside a delicate base of rolling skitter and electronic murmur, while "Between Urban Movements" sashays in with loping funk accompanied by a voice fragmented and swizzled into whorling glossalalia. The non-vocal pieces impress too, though they're slightly less dynamic. "Victory Hold Still" conjures elegant charm by underlay pastoral hiccups with the nimble thump of sparse throbs and scurrying clatter, while the brooding lurch of "Four Hour Window" snakily maps a clandestine route through a deserted nocturnal metropolis. "We All Are Already Are" brings the album full circle by re-introducing the opener's harp plucks and pairing them with a seemingly more randomized assortment of piano embellishments and clicking beats, almost as if Rohrmann wanted to pack all of the album's material into a single piece. Strong for the Future is so accomplished, it's hard to believe that Andrew Rohrmann isn't an old master. - Textura |
1XLP/Out Of Print