Bleep

One of our favourite records of 2017 was the glossy new age / new world electronica that Visible Cloaks Reassemblage offered. Only months later they have returned to RVNG Intl. with a new EP entitled Lex, gifting us with another sip of that same digital liquid that quenched our thirst so badly back in the first quarter of the year.

Further extending the traces of J-pop as a way to transport the listener through the newly built, yet glossed over Blade Runner urban scenery that truly characterizes the touch screen existence of Visible Cloaks' world. What instantly draws us in about Lex is the freshly captured synthetic texture that is the resulting transmission from the group's tinkering with ideas of feeding different dialects through various strands of language translation software. These misplaced vocal treatments give a somewhat human edge to Lex, meaning its immersive landscape remains a place of alien entity yet does not betray the ensuring escapism sought after within the group's music. Lex is an EP of familiarity through science fiction flavours. For those looking for points of reference to guide them forward, the closest ends of the spectrum Lex recalls are the early computer as instrument experiments of Jean-Claude Risset, yet as this is an all-digital world its music also heavily leans towards the future building electronic architecture of Rian Treanor.

While it's full to the brim with the seemingly aquatic sounds that were key to Reassemblage's success, its ability to absorb you inward even further is the record's true crowning achievement.