Surprise drop from experimental and electronic music eccentric Bad Bubble is -by all accounts- a gripping sonic experience. Toying with minimalism and unfamiliar soundscapes, obsessed with artistic integrity, an Intricate Cacophony is a lengthy and expansive foray into the mind of a truly outstanding musician.
The Chicago-based electronic musician and producer Bad Bubble has grown up surrounded by music, watching his mother play the piano, endearingly calling her the best pianist he has ever seen. Bad Bubble’s career in music has then proceeded with him being a drummer and a bassist, filling in with numerous local punk outfits throughout the years. As Bad Bubble, the illusive musician and producer behind these songs prefers to go about doing things the old way. Using a TASCAM mixing board and a litany of strings recorded by himself, Bad Bubble believes in creating, tweaking, and mixing every line by hand, as he feeds them into the board, a technique he says might hurt the creative process more than push it forward, but a technique that he philosophically adheres to nonetheless.
The resulting product is an eclectic mix of ambient and indie elements that blurs the lines between organic, and heavily manipulated. Manipulation is mostly evident in the approach of Bad Bubble mixing his vocals, which are oftentimes robotic and puzzling in nature, going against the usually serene piano backdrops and sparse soundscapes, for often otherworldly effects. Among the album’s most stand out songs are the lead single ‘Sliced Bongo’, an atmospheric piece that blends Slowdive with Cocteau Twins together, with a fair share of Bad Bubble’s own stylistic leanings.
Then there are the vividly glacial colors on ‘Eighty Six on Me’, a driving, piano-led ballad, also dripping with atmospherics, rich with a plethora of reverbs, and sounding exquisitely out of the 80s, thanks to the TASCAM recorder and Bad Bubble’s integrity. ‘Dots’ is one more of the album’s intricate and charming offerings. With its battering -but subdued- beat and bass and long-winded melodic structures, this solemn, space disco offering is as soothing as it is energizing. Following that up with ‘Off to the Front’, one of the album’s more ambient and drawn back offerings, featuring a singular piano performance accompanied only by Bad Bubble’s alien vocals, it is one of the album’s most introspective and restrained compositions.
Pulling off the Slowdive-like ambiences with the landmark Phil Collins’s compression and gated reverb production cues, Bad Bubble’s recording approach takes us back to how ambience and indie used to be in the 80s. Weird and delightful. An Intricate Cacophony is a cohesive and interesting listen, showcasing one of indie’s brightest minds and most whimsical musical personas, known only as Bad Bubble.