New i-fls: Windowsill Of Perception

Notes on Windoswill Of Persception, i-fls’ new album out on Niphlex that you should obviously download right away:

– Suburban life/childhood/adolescence is often remembered as a simple time in one’s life, relatively carefree days (at least in comparison to adulthood) that has in 2013 become nostalgia, Buzzfeed list after Buzzfeed list of “remember when?” Yet that setting and those ages are just as complicated emotionally, which i-fls recognizes on Windowsill. He spikes his pleasant synth melodies with noises – the very first track features random cell phone rings and jittery drums seemingly recorded off a boombox playing Aphex Twin (many of the songs here feature this sort of percussive sound). “Maki Tread The Turntable” features an off-beat pounding. “Rebroadcast” sounds like it’s about to pop open.

– There is a song here called “Atami Teenage Riot” which both manages to sound like a Garageband version of an Atari Riot Song (again, the beat), but also sounds far more sincere and sweet than the typically manic German group comes up with.

– As mentioned in pretty much everything I’ve written about i-fls, he works with a very limited range of sounds, but that he’s able to (still) draw so much out of them is incredible. The way he milks tension out of just some synths and beats, building all of it up until it practically glows (see “Chiaki Fluctuate” and the gorgeous, eyes-sparkling “Kudo Want To Be Piano Star”).

– “Go Out” is pretty intense, the sound of late-night melancholy, building up into something hopeful.