Fluxion is another artist I feel I should have crossed paths with more often, but once again, Lord Discogs tells me that's not the case. Maybe it's because I've seen the name Flux Pavilion 'round these here parts for so many years, the name kinda' mushed into 'Fluxion' within my brain. Or perhaps it's immediacy bias cropping up, as I just listened to an album from Simon Posford with the word “Flux” in its title.
On the other hand, why haven't I seen Mr. Soublis' project more often? Dude was among the early dub techno names, getting his break on Basic Channel's Chain Reaction print. He'd later go on to release multiple singles and albums, some through his own Vibrant Music, others on that other Very Important dub techno label, Echocord. Yet if Discogs is anything to go by, his compilation and official DJ mix appearances remain slight, a track here and a tune there about all I see. There may be more that the Ogger community is simply unfamiliar with (!!), but for all intents, it seems Fluxion's name hasn't made that much of an impact beyond the dub techno faithful.
Which has little to do with me, to be honest. As is often the case, Perspectives was another blind buy from the Ultimae shop, that recollection of a name that I clearly had no actual recognition of drawing me in. And hey, a soggy side-street within claustrophobic urban architecture, stretching beyond the photo's parallax, that's enough to pique my interest with this release.
Opener Schism is promising, a gentle ambient piece with graceful reverb and dubby hiss invoking those vintage Burial feels, just without all the vinyl crackle and guns clacking. Follow-up Formation gets the groove going, also about as vintage as most dub techno goes in most eras, but with a nice little melodic through-line – yeah, I can hear why modern Ultimae would hawk this album in their shop. Further along, whopping thirteen-minute Glimpses and 'shorter' nine-minute Glimpses II provide nice, hypnotic journeys with looping rhythmic dub and gently evolving melancholic melodies. Trance, you say? Well, maybe that 'neo' branch, if The Field had gotten more influence from classic Swayzak.
Beyond those tracks though, Perspectives mostly dwells on the jazzier side of dub techno ...kinda'. Fluxion's tried-and-tested genre attributes remain the dominate force in his production, but is never so stiff and cold as this style typically goes, allowing a little emotion and soul within. Tracks like Within, Dawn, Down The Line, and Distance feature more shuffly rhythms with jammy instruments, lending almost an urban-jazz vibe to these digital atmospheres. Even a track like Cliff, with its dub techno pulse similar to Glimpses, comes paired with gentle strings befitting an uplifting moment in a noir film. Has Fluxion always been like this, or are these sounds unique to this particular album? Guess I should check out the rest of his discography to find out. I mean, anything repped on Echocord can't be half bad, right?
