Meemo Comma
's recordings have progressed from nature-inspired soundscapes to deconstructed breakbeat futurism. Following the ambitious but confusing
Neon Genesis: Soul Into Matter²
, which attempted to draw connections between Jewish mysticism and anime,
Lara Rix-Martin
focused on '90s rave and jungle influences for the less philosophically heavy
Loverboy
. Opening track "Cloudscape" mixes skittering synths, punchy breakbeats, and operatic vocals, sounding like a faster, more intense version of
Orbital
's "Belfast" but reaching for the same level of euphoria. Most of the other tracks also use familiar breakbeats, and while they're sometimes looped continuously so that they could rhythmically fit in a DJ set, there's plenty of tracks that dissolve, disintegrate, or mangle the beats. It's very much an art-school take on jungle but somehow in a much different way than
Squarepusher
's drill'n'bass or even the memory-trigger experiments of someone like
Lee Gamble
. "Loneheath" is paced well enough to move a crowd, particularly with the acid synths near the end, and "Bubble Bag" is closer to a more straightforward, atmospheric drum'n'bass tune, but tracks like "Ignite" continually push and pull the breaks, glitching them out and snapping them back to upright tempos before short-circuiting them again. The disorientation is part of the fun, and while not every experiment is a success,
is still easier to appreciate than previous
efforts. ~ Paul Simpson