| Featuring rich, playful soundscapes that are simultaneously intricate in design and of a piece with the longstanding lo-fi Mush Records aesthetic, Forgetabout is a thoroughly enjoyable electro-acoustic record that is tangentially aligned with the folktronica subgenre. While the album relies heavily on experimentation in terms of rhythmic structure, its adherence to conventional melody connects it, however tenuously, to the IDM tradition. Tracks such as “Broadcast” recall artists like Jega, Arovane, and occasionally, Boards of Canada, dense as they are with shimmering electronic textures and inorganic sound sources. The album’s opener, “Little Branches & Little Birds,” itself borrows from Aphex Twin’s unorthodox and idiosyncratic approach to rhythm programming by substituting subtle, skipping digital errors and cracked, arcane digitalia for actual percussion. But while several tracks, such as the mutant funk abstraction of “8tk,” keep Qua’s tracks firmly rooted in experimentalism, other pieces on Forgetabout borrow liberally from the rock and blues lexicons (the tongue-in-cheek “Duet for Guitar and Fridge” being the most obvious example). The gorgeous arrangement of various guitar phrases and haunting lap steel on “Vienna” renders it a mesmerizing but fairly conventional piece as well. The track ends with a gentle koto figure that serves as a fitting denouement, and subsequently adds even more diversity to the record’s already varied sonic palette. - Grooves |
