Purportedly the final album recorded by
Sun Araw associate
Alex Gray under his
D/P/I moniker,
Composer was created using generative software that shreds samples and arranges them into abstract rhythms. While some older
D/P/I releases featured recognizable hip-hop and R&B samples and relatively danceable rhythms, nearly everything here is completely obliterated and spat out at sporadic intervals, yet there's still a definite propulsion to it. Some of the pieces are more fragmentary, but others such as the lengthy "Semantics" seem to have some sort of guidance to them, even if
Gray himself isn't exactly in control of where the pieces are headed. There are minimal bursts of static similar to most Raster-Noton artists, but the rhythms are more erratic, and sometimes the sounds get blown up to overwhelming proportions. "Ecstatics" lets its source material shine through a bit more, with slivers of vocals and saxophone caught in the machine, while a battered drum sample is repeatedly convoluted and splattered at sextuple speed. Somehow it manages to maintain a bounce for much of its duration, until it fizzles apart near the end. "Pattern/WAYTA?" is like a radioactive object that keeps bouncing up a giant hill, continually changing form and color until it seems to implode.
Composer is a dizzying, electrifying work that couldn't have been properly composed; it could've only flowed forth from the subconscious. ~ Paul Simpson