Prolific Austin producer Eliot Lipp scales up the melody, rays, and artistic passive-aggressiveness on Skywave, a short, summery project suffering from meandering tendencies. “Sun Comes Out” rings bright, an Eighties-leaning industrial-lite track with subtle funk percussion and retrofuturistic keys, but poolside jam “Tides” washes up undercooked. Revisiting his 2016 album Come to Life, there’s a newer, less rhythmic version of “Not Quite Awake,” now a reflective, string-filled remix by producer Emancipator. Finally, “Spiders” and “Advance” move the project downstream into murkier waters, increasingly disoriented and aggressive in execution and tone, while “Rise Fall Rise” leaves you wanting more at the finish, wishing its declarative and concussive jungle/drum and bass sections – or at least the assertive energy generated by them – had occurred much earlier, and more often.
This article appears in June 9 • 2017.
