Rating: 7.5/10

Hi, this is Flume.

 

 

Australian producer Flume is back after three years of absence with a mixtape entitled “Hi This Is Flume.” On it, Harley Streten delivers some of his best work ever, and certainly one of the highlights of the electronic music scene of 2019 so far.

His instrumentation choices are bold and Flume doesn’t shy away from complex production and sounds that appear challenging when first listening. However, for those that enjoy cohesive, smooth, and unique experiences, “Hi This is Flume” has that in spades. As far as playlist-ability goes, this project has troubles with delivering tracks that stand well on their own, and there is a feeling that pervades the mixtape, a feeling of getting really close to something great, but not quite hitting the mark. Nonetheless, it makes for a fantastic listen.

On this record (if you can even call it that), Flume breaks from his reputation as a somewhat generic, very “mid 2010’s” style musician and bring something more exciting to the table. He takes his image as a major player in the softcore, background-music-esque, YouTube autoplay music scene, crumples it up, and eats it.

That’s not to say that Streten has completely departed from what makes him distinctly Flume, rather he has tapped into a more experimental, uncompromising side of his sonic palette, choosing to dip a brush into the wet, lush paint, and go crazy on the canvas of the listeners’ ears.

The album opens with the title track, a vocal introduction called “Hi This Is Flume.” All it is is Streten introducing himself, layered with…. Streten introducing himself. The same few vocal samples repeat, overlapping and looping to shape a cacophonous, swirling mess that lets the rhythmic synth line of the following song surreptitiously slip in.

The transition to “Ecdysis” is seamless, with Flume’s chatter fading away and a hard, bass-y percussion jumping into the mix without hesitation. The glitchy, futuristic sound of this track is a fantastic first taste of the neon-enshrined ride that awaits the listener. Again, a seamless transition (spoiler: they’re all seamless, it’s fantastic) into the third track, “High Beams,” featuring HWLS and slowthai, with an aggressive, no-holds-barred rap exploding over a catchy, toe-tapping beat. Flume really flexes in the first few tracks, hooking the listener immediately.

Now that the listener is along for the ride, Flume brings them along into a world within a vintage tape deck inside your neighbor’s brother’s DeLorean with the missing hubcap. Rather than simply channeling a more concentrated take on the 80’s auditory aesthetic like so many others have, Flume juices it, blending it together with trap and bass influences to create something uniquely modern that quickly feels familiar and comfortable.

The middle of the album is more of the same, enjoyable, slightly atmospheric synths that transport the listener to another place and time. Floating around somewhere in there is an excellent remix of SOPHIE’s “Is It Cold In The Water?” featuring Eprom, leading into what is possibly the best track on the project, “How To Build a Relationship.” Sporting one of the best JPEGMAFIA verses (arguably) of all time, Flume blends his smooth cocktail of future nostalgia with Barrington Hendricks’ hot, spicy, loud vocals to make a song that begs to be played at a high volume. The energy conveyed is strong, and the combination of synthy future bass and JPEGMAFIA’s signature style is heaven on the palate.

At this point, there’s still more to come. “Hi This Is Flume” continues, but slows down a bit, with more subdued, chill cuts like “Wormhole” and “Voices,” featuring SOPHIE’s smooth, haunting voice. In the various visualizations of the album, the second half is darker, conveying a feeling akin to driving on a cool summer night. A highlight of this second half is “Daze 22.00,” a song consisting of a looping lo-fi erhu sample that commands the listener to close their eyes and be transported to a highway cutting through a expansive, uptown American landscape of fast food and neon, head leaning out of the window of that old DeLorean as it cruises down the strip.

The mixtape concludes with the brighter, snappy sound of “Spring” before fading away just as quickly as it came, leaving the listener with a warm, relaxed feeling in their chest, an enjoyable experience through and through. Despite that, one can’t help but feel that there’s something missing, as if Flume didn’t quite take them all the way, a taste of something greater on the tip of their tongue. Perhaps it’s the length of the cuts, each track averaging two minutes or less, or perhaps it’s the speed and variety of sounds that Streten hurls through the speakers, but “Hi This Is Flume” leaves something to be desired. Granted, this “something” is slight, and arguably unattainable, but the sentiment is still there. Altogether, “Hi This Is Flume” is a fun mixtape with enjoyable cuts that stand reasonably well on their own, and even better when in the context of the project. “Hi This Is Flume,” like the DeLorean with a missing hubcap is fine on its own, but feels incomplete.

 

“Hi This Is Flume” is available now on all major platforms.