After years trawling the indie rock underbelly with Tripwires and
Ulrika Spacek, Rhys Edwards decamped to Stockholm to work on solo recordings under the name
Astrel K. Looking to focus on songs as much as sound, he hit on an approach that borrows the best elements of a variety of styles, then rolls them up into a very appealing package.
Flickering i touches on
Broadcast-style ambient pop, downcast slowcore, spacy post-rock, and
Nilsson-in-a-cupboard-style pop songs while incorporating clanging guitars, twinkling keys, well-placed samples of horns and strings, and Edwards' intimate croon of a voice. The album comes across like a well-curated collection of the best of indie rock from the past few decades, but it escapes being a mere museum piece thanks to the understated rawness of the emotions bubbling below the perfectly crafted surfaces. Songs like "You Could If You Can" and the title track are exceedingly nice listening thanks to Edwards' skills as a magpie producer; they dig a little deeper, and there's some real loneliness and melancholy swirling around down there. It's impossible to miss on tunes like "Clean Coal" -- five minutes of anguished vocals and strangled guitar -- that let the slowcore and post-rock influences come to the fore. Or the tightly wound pop songs like "Maybe It All Comes at Once," where the artifice is stripped back and the sharpness of the melody and unabashed reality of Edwards' voice cut through all the way. Best of all are tracks like "Is It It or Is It I" and "Clicktivism," where all the influences come together to form an amalgamated sound, and Edwards whips out an amazing melody and piercing chorus to match.
Flickering i is that hoary old cliché -- a record that rewards repeated listens. Its balance of nakedly emotional moments with those cloaked in mystery keeps the listener guessing and ultimately leads to a deeper pleasure than one might get from an album that gives all its secrets away at first glance. ~ Tim Sendra