At this point, we probably have enough albums dedicated to rave nostalgia. And the British producer Matt Cutler should feel OK about that, because as Lone, he's responsible for quite a few of them. His new one, Levitate doesn't really break any new ground; it reprises ideas (and in some cases, specific synthesizer patches) that he has been using since 2010's Emerald Fantasy Tracks. Yet, to its credit, it doesn't feel redundant. At its best, this short, punchy album feels like a distillation of everything that has made Lone's work great so far.
Historically, Lone's music has tended to toggle between two modes. On the one hand, there's drowsy, lysergic downbeat in the tradition of Boards of Canada and Dilla; on the other, a kind of exaggerated rave revivalism, which takes tropes from early-'90s UK dance music and blows them up to gargantuan proportions. Lemurian and Ecstasy & Friends, his first two albums, kept to hip-hop tempos, woozy moods, but the Red Bull kicked in with 2010's Emerald Fantasy Tracks, and he threw himself into house tempos with gusto. The intensity built on 2012's vertiginous Galaxy Garden, and then, since everything that comes up must come down—an adage many ravers know all too well—2014's Reality Testing slunk back under the covers, balancing hip-hop beats with slow, starry-eyed house and boogie in the vein of Floating Points' early singles.
From a title like Levitate, you can guess where Cutler's taking us this time: right back up to the top. It might be Lone's most intense album to date—dancing like a downed electrical wire, with its hooks as immediate as anything he's ever done. Album opener “Alpha Wheel” brings us hurtling up to speed with fat, loud, practically diamond-encrusted breakbeats and a chord progression that sets off tiny serotonin bombs with every syncopated stab. “Backtail Was Heavy” inhabits similar terrain, balancing rough-cut breaks and detuned horn stabs with a sparkly, Aphex-indebted synth melody. In a curious case of double déjà vu, it's a hardcore throwback through-and-through, and it also uses an uncannily similar synth sound from Emerald Fantasy Tracks’ “Moon Beam Harp.”
The shuddering “Triple Helix” and the smooth drum'n'bass roller “Sea of Tranquility” keep the energy levels soaring; even the Boards of Canada pastiche “Sleepwalkers” musters a kind of rhythmic force that the Scottish duo themselves have rarely achieved. Levitate is the shortest album Lone has ever made—just 33 minutes in all, and two of its nine songs are sketch-like ambient interludes. Functionally, it's more like an EP than an album, but that extreme sense of focus works in its favor: There's no wasted effort, and his craft has never sounded better—his beats are Jaws-of-Life strong, his melodies buffed to a blinding sheen. His ingenious way of flipping, chopping and reversing breakbeats recalls Squarepusher’s first two albums, made when the drill'n'bass producer's goofy grin hadn't yet hardened into a smirk. And Cutler manages to find subtle ways to surprise. Both “Alpha Wheel” and “Sleepwalkers” build to their climax and then just drop away.
It all comes together in “Triple Helix”: the sound design, the energy, the optimism. It's wild, disorienting, sugary, hyper-sensory stuff, and it's no wonder that my 11-month-old daughter loves it. Rave has always had an infantilizing aspect, from songs like Smart E's “Sesame's Treet” to accoutrements like pacifiers and Mickey Mouse gloves. Levitate leverages rave nostalgia to get to a deeper truth: Free your inner child, and your ass and mind will follow.
