The Blue Phoenix: “Obstreperous Mind” – well-crafted songs with an experimental edge!

The Blue Phoenix’s musicianship is nearly impeccable. The meticulous composition, bouncing synths, and grooving beats are often simple, looped melodies wrapped in insistent rhythms, hazy ephemera, and stylish flourishes – drama built in the repetition and slow morphing. This 18 year old music producer is completely self-taught, and didn’t take music production to the next level until 2013, when he began producing in FL Studio 10. His latest album is the 8 track “Obstreperous Mind”.

As expected, the album follows a similar structure to these previous releases, but it’s clear that his sound has matured. Here he has honed his talent for delivering well-crafted songs all the while having an experimental edge. The listener is lured in slowly with “RAW”, a hypnotic jam with an infectious drum-track.

The centerpiece or the album is unquestionably “Inhuman Error”, which begins with a robotic voice, a trippy synth riff and a pulsating electronic drum-beat. It’s the kind of song you need to listen to over and over before you can get it out of your system.

Despite the gargantuan, often overbearing, scope of modern electronic music, many of the genre’s artists have taken it upon themselves to take cues from various eras. The Blue Phoenix is one such example, venturing to the middle of the decade and hauling along with him an array of 21st-century advancements in digital technology to blend with vintage, synth-heavy dance sounds, which you can hear on “Dancing Dunce” and “Sky”. He is also able to switch into Dubstep territory with “Wub and Effection”.

“Obstreperous Mind” is a thoroughly well-made and rewarding listen. The word that comes to mind while exploring the cinematic trance zones of this album is unquestionably, “confidence.” The Blue Phoenix is so self-assured in his arrangements that the melodies fuse themselves flawlessly into the balancing act of drums and synths.

Throughout the tracks, backing synth sequences and arpeggios are simple and trippy, taking turns switching between simple motifs, before a melody emerges in the foreground that takes on a moody quality. The lead melodies themselves move into repetition fairly quickly, but the tracks build and break down in enjoyable ways. Driving with this on in the car is a life changing experience with the sounds of liquid metal pouring out of the speakers.

The production values – especially on “Scorpion” and “Dark Water”– as well as cinematic scope of the music reach a point where The Blue Phoenix isn’t just referencing his influences but actually building upon and expanding them. Some of these songs sound like the soundtrack to an epic movie or novel that never came to be.

The songs are rich and lush but also know when to be spare and breathe. That shows a lot of maturity on the part of the songwriter in my opinion. The Blue Phoenix has combined all my favorite electronic elements into a stellar album that I’ll be listening to for quite some time!