36: Fade To Grey
ASIP

Fade To Grey isn't the first time Dennis Huddleston's explored cyberpunk and dystopian themes in his 36 material, his productions typically possessing a sleek, futuristic sheen and exuding an ominous, foreboding quality that sometimes calls Blade Runner to mind. On this follow-up to his 2016 ASIP release, The Infinity Room, the ambient producer's thematic focus shifts to the isolation experienced by individuals within technology-based environments, the implication being that instead of helping people connect authentically, social media has deepened its users' sense of alienation, making them feel even lonelier than they did before such avenues presented themselves. Exacerbating that, such forums are increasingly poisoned by the infiltration of third parties, political or otherwise, intent on using any number of insidious strategies to manipulate and wreak havoc.

Eight tracks are presented on the release, the physical version (451 copies) of which ASIP has pressed on transparent yellow vinyl and bound in a gatefold sleeve; the vinyl release includes a digital download plus, even more generously, a bonus CD featuring reinterpretations of the eight pieces. The material's immediately identifiable as Huddleston's, his customary refined touch evident in the elegance of the arrangements and simple yet nevertheless haunting melodies. Each luscious production builds incrementally as layer upon layer is added, the producer doing so with assurance and precision.

In “DNI,” a piano motif slowly emerges from the thick mist of granular static and electronics that's eventually joined by the subtlest of rhythmic undercurrents; even more dreamlike are “Esper,” where a sombre synthesizer melody, enveloped by an opaque swirl of hiss and shimmer, unfurls in slow motion, and “D.R.E.A.M Link,” a stunning example of widescreen ambient at its sweeping best. That Blade Runner-esque dimension imposes itself during “Night Rain” when thick drizzle drenches synth washes and an echoing, crow-like wail that punctuates the dramatic soundfield.

If any track extends the 36 template into broader regions, it's “Midnight Tether” in the way chiming guitar shadings and waves of swelling noise combine to amp up the intensity in a way that suggests some ambient-shoegaze hybrid. Not surprisingly, the closing title track, the album's longest at eleven minutes, is 36 at its most epic, Huddleston here executing a number of carefully measured ascents with a remarkable degree of control.

The reinterpretations are slightly longer than the originals, with the title track, for example, stretched to seventeen on the CD. Without deviating too much from the identity of the originals, Huddleston amplifies the dramatic character in the extra versions, with blurry voices, samples (a police siren, for instance), and supplementary layers of vaporous elements woven into arrangements that rise even more dynamically to a wall-of-sound pitch. Another difference (and not a minor one if you're playing the release from start to finish) is the omission of pauses between tracks, the bonus set presenting itself as an uninterrupted mix of some sixty-eight-minute duration.

March 2019