Hyperion - Gesaffelstein: Review
Gessaffelstein
is a French music producer who blew up after doing production work om Kanye West's Yeezus in 2013. Since then he has collaborated with the likes of Phoenix, The Weeknd and A$AP Rocky and released two studio album, the 2nd of which Hyperion was teased with 3 singles of varying quality in late 2018 into 2019.
Review By Lavender:
Gessaffelstein is talented, nobody is denying that, Black Skinhead alone is a testament to his talent. But after releasing a debut album that didn't thrill me and doing some very average work in The Weeknd's My Dear, Melancholy EP last year I was hesitant for this album. It's lead single Reset at the tail end of last year grabbed me and brought me back into the excitement of a new project and its follow-up Lost In The Fire with The Weeknd was a better collaboration then their tracks on his EP and really got me ready to hear Hyperion. This hype was dragged just a touch by the release of the very mediocre Pharrell collaboration Blast Off, but thankfully my fears that this would be a half-hearted Daft Punk rip off weren't true. The result is more sonically cohesive, but still loses its way a few times.
As I said in the intro Reset is a fantastic tune, its perfectly eerie and uses a lack of bass hits to stand out on the album as an ethereal experience. Its breakdowns are fantastically distant and compelling and it all around one of the best tunes here. Lost In The Fire is a much different direction, the tune features The Weeknd and Abel gives a very solid performance. The instrumental just isn't anything to write home about, even though its better than the duos work in My Dear Meloncholy it slips into this tracklist as just a decent entry. Finally there was Blast Off a very very simple instrumental made no better by one of the least catchy Pharrell performances I've ever heard. The song stands out and sounds like a Daft Punk ripoff more than anything else, its a down moment on the album.
The albums opener Hyperion and Memora both have a similar problem of setting up a decently compelling loop and then doing nearly nothing with it for their short runtimes. Thankfully they are two of the shortest tracks on the album and honestly only break up the flow. Similar complaints for the interlude style track Ever Now but one could argue that the expectations should be less anyway.
Forever is one of the more boring tunes on the album but it has a fantastic breakdown at the end into one of my personal favorite moments on the song. Thankfully that bombastic house inspired moment leads into one of the best tracks on the album Vortex. It opens up with some distant and blaring sirens that do a brilliant job of guiding you into one of the most impressive builds this entire album hits. The song has roots in house inspired music but steps into a little bit of a more experimental realm. So Bad features HAIM but far from their typical indie rock sound. They deliver a very lowkey nearly whispered performance that matches the instrumental perfectly. Even though there isn't really a loud of climactic moment the song border on being trip hop with its eerie instrumental and smooth but soft delivery.
The closing track Humanity Gone stands out for a few reasons, starting with its the longest track by far pushing on 11 minutes, its also the most downtempo of all the tracks and nearly crosses the line into ambient. I enjoyed the track a lot and I think it serves as a great way to slowly slide out of the record which is at times a very dissonant listen.
Gessaffelstein returns with tn album that is hard to pin down stylistically and has its hand in a lot of different genres. Even though he hits with a pretty impressive variety of good songs the misses here are hard to ignore. For an album that is only ten tracks it can be hard to rationalize that nearly a third of the project is underwhelming, but Gessaffelstein is still a big name to look out for moving forward. 6/10
For more electronica check out my review of James Blake's Assume Form here.
