Fragile X - Curves and Calculus

 Released: June 27 

Fragile X (J. Goreki) has an established reputation for some rather inventive and captivating synth sound design and his latest album here, Curves and Calculus is no exception. The synths lines are just immaculate in tone and timing while being perfectly spun around one another in a way that makes it all feel like an intricate and purposeful tangle of bright lines. The mathematical title of the album threw me off a bit before listening, but hearing the album in full makes it make perfect sense as it all comes together.  Each track has its own specific formulation and I think it’s important to consider what each contains as much as what each does not contain. 

“Bourbaki” is one of the few tracks on the album that contains a clearly identifiable set of percussion and it works so brilliantly to wind as sense of slightly frantic energy into the track. It takes the already energetic sense given by the accelerated synths and sends it into almost breakbeat territory. It’s evokes a sense in me that is reminiscent of the early days of geometric shooter games, like something in the vein of Descent Maximum as you see rough shapes fly past as you run through abstract tunnels at high speed. “Clouds Are Not Spheres” gives a similar vibe but at a decidedly calmer and smoother pace. But this one feels a frantic overall and I found the groove in the percussion to be exceptionally tight. 

There’s a number of tracks here that eschew any clear percussion at all and instead take us on a purely synth-driven journey. “Orbitdgm” opens us with sparse stabs and long pads before gaining a bit of energy just past the halfway mark. For me, this one feels like one of the most psychedelic sounding pieces on the album, though all the tracks do seem to have this kind of psychedelic quality - one that feels reminiscent of the early days of psytrance as a genre. “Integers,” the last track on the album, has a similar vibe to the aforementioned track, though it incorporates just the lightest amount of percussion that opts for shakers and hand drum type of sounds, giving a techno-drum circle aesthetic that I found to be a wonderfully mellow way to close things out.