Poetic Darkness
Fixion, the newest album from Danish DJ Trentemøller, is not so much as a continuation of his other albums, but more of a further exploration. On Fixion, Trentemøller pokes and prods further into external darkness while still giving himself enough slack to pull himself back out, thanks, in part to lyrical help from Jehnny Beth from Savages.
“One Eye Open” opens the album dramatically and first introduces a layering effect of heavy bass lines below soft sections, a pattern that comes up frequently. “Sinus” shows itself to be the most industrial-driven song, with a bass line that seems to bring everything to a stop. While there is not a lot happening, the effect is powerful and perfectly-added clashes are able to raise some goosebumps. “River In Me” follows, and sounds nothing like its predecessors. It’s jarring in the right away which allows it to stand out on its own as one of the more unusual songs on the album.
“Phoenicia” is a middle ground of sorts, with its sound falling in between what happened in “One Eye Open” and “River In Me.” It’s busy and textured and plays with using the sound of static. If there is a fault to find on this album, it would be in the longer songs like “November” and “Spinning.” Both sound extremely similar without much build in either, so having them played one after the other results in a twelve minute, flat lining stretch on the album.
Throughout, Fixion finds itself balancing between the light and dark. While the bass line keeps things heavy and wants to pull everything down with it, the lyrics and soft melodies always manage to float back to the top. Trentemøller shows how far his reach is when combining both industrial and pseduo ’80s pop beats. Every song does something completely different from the next, and at times Fixion plays almost like two completely different albums. Fixion is surely yet another album that will continue to bring Trentemøller praise.
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