The accompanying press release states that rRoxymore’s latest long-player, Juggling Dualities, started out as a new age recording. An exercise in harmonic healing. However, all sorts of other influences have crept in. The opener, Am I Human?, for example, a wealth of warped sine waves, delicate drones, chimes and arpeggios, summons cinematic scores and, in addition, nods toward classic Detroit techno. The gating on its dancing frequencies resembling Derrick May’s remix of Sueno Latino. Nector also seems to pay tribute to Motor City, its rapid, ritual programmed percussion recalling Stacey Pullen’s Bango, and its strings and signals, tonally, Kenny Larkin. 

Upward Spiral is more abstract, a slow tropical tumble of detuned timbres that has Wally Badarou exploring Jon Hassell’s Fourth World. Embracing The Unknown charts similarly serene sonic terrain, but adds an electro rhythm, like little laser blasts, which link the track to the 90s IDM of artists such as Plaid and Steve “Stasis” Pickton. Badarou gets referenced again in the accordion-led Solace’s choir of treated voices. 

Moodified is a race of filtered and glitched bleeps and big room beats. A shot of strange, uncompromising, sound design that makes for a totally accessible dance floor moment. Its “rave” tempered by a tender melody and a contrabass-like B-line, and a bit of a ringer for Two Lone Swordsmen’s Rico’s Helly. 

Juggling Dualities, however, never feels the need to stick a straight forward kick in anything. A set of largely chilled 21st Century electronica that respectfully acknowledges its roots, without slavishly copying them, the album closes with Lows And Attactions. Intro-ed by a sampled speech that supposes we become the sounds that we hear, as they activate our memories and imagination, it’s a haunting, more organic, piece consisting of only sparse piano and echoes of the space it was recorded in. 

rRoxymore’s Juggling Dualities can be ordered directly from !K7.