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Rambutan, "Inverted Summer"
As the solo guise of Eric Hardiman, Rambutan is a more distilled abstraction of the psych tendencies he demonstrates in the rock-oriented Century Plants and improvisational quartet Twilight of the Century. Here, on his first full-length foray into the world of vinyl, he delivers an extremely diverse and polished work, bringing in elements from his other projects while still retaining his own personal sound and approach to music.
Throughout the album, there are some consistent elements of late 1960s/early 1970s electronic psychedelia that never resemble anyone in particular per se, but captures the mood and the spirit of the times beautifully.The short, echoing blips that form a rudimentary rhythmic foundation for "Time Garden" have that primitive synth sound nailed down, while odd melodies that almost have a classic rock tinge to them mingle with the occasional abstract electro acoustic outburst.
This repetition of psychedelic phrases appears heavily on "Floodlights," although throughout the song they seem to slowly come unwound, becoming more and more chaotic and disheveled as time clicks away."Frozen Flower" also leans heavy into flanged and tremolo heavy passages, with an emphasis on Hardiman's guitar playing, although it stays relatively low in the mix."Topology" captures a different mood entirely via its bleaker, dissonant passages of sound and reverberating outbursts that makes for one of the darker moments contained within.
From its title, Inverted Summer inescapably called to mind Fennesz's Endless Summer, but the material does not run all that parallel.There are the occasional similarities, like the heavily processed guitar and drum machine beat of "Viaduct" evolving into a similar abstraction of pop music, albeit here with an electronic didgeridoo accompaniment.The lighter, sun drenched electronics that swell in "Shallow Motion" also resemble that laconic, summer vibe, but here it is slow to rise from gritty electronics and distended guitar distortion.
Those are likely just happenstance, however, and I think it is less a matter of direct following than it is two creative artists who happen to work heavily with guitar doing their own thing.While some elements of Hardiman's other projects appear throughout Inverted Summer, never does it sound like anything that would fit better under a different moniker.It is entirely Hardiman's touch, and it shines as a brilliant piece of modern psychedelic experimentation.
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