| Why is it that a musician using similar stylistic signatures and basically the same formal structures as colleagues within his own genre makes music that just sounds better? Searching for the ephemeral element that elevates creativity will occupy composers and listeners as long as music is made; but when CD’s like Eliot Lipp’s The Outside come along, they make us consider it anew. After all there’s more ambient electronica out there than you can shake a stick at; what makes this Brooklynite laptop symphonist better than many of his contemporaries? Part of Lipp’s talent lies in his excellent, yet catholic, tastes, both in musical material and instruments themselves. A self-styled purveyor of “electrofunk,” he employs vintage synths alongside programmed beats and digital technology, thus drawing from a diverse palette. Lipp also knows how to deploy these diverse elements. The Outside features perfect pacing on instrumentals such as the title track, with its bent-note solos and sassy robot grooves, and the beguiling trip hop number “Beyond the City.” “Best Friends”,” with a sepulchral and swinging bass-line and a warm IDM ambience, is so evocative that it seems to cry out for visual accompaniment. Why the movie business hasn’t snatched this guy up yet is beyond me! - Sequenza 21 |
