Scattersun
Album by Fax Gang & Parannoul
Released 12 June 2024
Indietronica / Glitch Pop
Label – Topshelf
Rating – 5/10
The collaboration that flew too close to the scattersun.
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Circular Motion – the finale of Fax Gang and Parannoul’s collaborative project Scattersun – unionises the credentials of the two acts, creating brand new shapes, animals and colours in the process. The searing charm of Parannoul is axe-chopped and turned into a rampant HexD glitch reminiscent of the buggy hypnagogic states of Fax Gang’s Dataprism, a fresh look for Parannoul’s Seoul-gaze supremacy.
But while redesigning each other’s makeup has some real potential, Fax Gang and Parannoul isn’t the most rewarding of crossovers, as the former spend much of Scattersun quietening the latter’s best characteristics.
The red flags don’t start waving until we’re finished with Quiet, an introductory sequence that totally works. Parannoul’s sulk-smiles are hip hop-ified, for once finding solace in ventures outside of DAW-y shoegaze, with pitch modulation that gifts him a Quadeca guise, complete with a heavy crescendo that pours like a cascade of human innards.
But they do wave, and they obfuscate whatever Parannoul’s role was on some of these songs. Mudd the Student’s spearing raps, indecipherable if not skilled, intrude on Wrong Signal’s creative interplay, while Parannoul’s majesty is treated like a hopscotch on Soliloquy; there’s beauty in there, but glitches and raps with odd tempo shifts jump all over it, muddying it up – it can’t breathe!
The beats and modulations of Double Bind are all Fax Gang, unperceptively digital unlike Parannoul’s secretive production style. One may assume the ten-minute duration of the title track would suit Parannoul perfectly, but his compositional excess is weighed down by bitcrushing and cloud beats.
The demo-ish acoustic rock of Ascension gives him a little more of a chance to shine, while his overlooked role as one of rock’s current great melodists is preserved on Lullaby for a Memory. His emo-like heart songs don’t sound half bad with drum n bass playing beside them, just let him sing them. The track also includes an amiable riff that kicks in at around a minute-and-a-half in, beautifully chiming as if crafted by a toymaker.
When it works, it works, but Scattersun doesn’t work often enough. This isn’t the level paying field I was hoping for, but instead a breakdown in communication.
Best tracks – Quiet – Lullaby for a Memory.
Rating – 5 out of 10
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