Music Review: "Radical Frame" by Actress
Modern Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) is extremely splintered in comparison to the more techno and drill and bass-focused 1990s. A lot of modern-day greats are in specific niches within the genre, and there’s almost no trace of one or two main “sounds” like previous years.
Actress started making music during this modern period, and he’s an artist I haven’t delved into as much as other modern IDM greats. His newest album, “Radical Frame,” originally left me with more questions than answers, but it’s an overall rewarding experience.
The album has two main standout songs, which are (after the two intros) the beginning and end of the album. Both are unique from any other song I have listened to from Actress (including any I have listened to after this album) and are exceptional in their own way.
“Live by You” plays immediately after both intros and exhibits a unique melancholic element to the album. The song has a melancholic intro, and guest CASISDEAD raps some verses before frantic, glitchy drums play and CASISDEAD’s vocals become glitchy and more frantic. The melancholy in this song, to me, represents a very specific existential sadness instead of a more traditional approach to a low, drifting sad sound.
The beats throughout the second half of the song get more frantic and aggressive, too, like the feeling of absolutely obsessing over missed opportunity and quickly after obsessing about your obsession with missed opportunity. In less than two minutes, Actress already reminds the listener of some emotionally deep, yet specific, feelings that keep them intrigued.
The album’s closer “Sheets” broadens this idea of obsession to a 16-minute runtime, taking the listener on a journey of realization, obsession and then realization of obsession. The song keeps the listener hooked through the cool-sounding background melodies and airy drums, but guest Rainy Miller repeats existential thoughts almost as mantras. He keeps saying “I overthink” and “Who am I?” hazily enough to where it blends in with the background but clearly enough to where the listener can make out what he’s saying.
The song eventually makes way to waves crashing and ambient synth pads playing, which could be Actress trying not to obsess further in this existential space in his brain. The drums go away, and the song (and the album by measure) ends blissfully.
The rest of the album stumped me at first, though. The songs that are in between, “Live by You” and “Sheets,” are mostly mild-mannered deep house tracks, besides “Cosmo,” a synth-heavy track that, while having atmosphere in its opening and closing parts, just kind of sits there between the other house tracks.
“Overchord” and “Withending” are both pretty spacey house tracks that have atmospheric, almost static-y portions throughout but mostly are nice and calming run-of-the-mill deep house songs. “Paris” is the most minimalistic out of the bunch and features metallic-sounding beats and a piano to accompany it.
When I finished the album initially, I was a little confused. I really enjoyed the album’s standout tracks, but a lot of it felt thrown together. The inclusion of both intros didn’t help, either. Both were under 20 seconds long, and I could do without them.
Some was revealed, though, when I listened to select other Actress tracks. He’s a great musician, and songs from his album “R.I.P” like “Marble Plexus” and “Tree of Knowledge” make sense to me. From what I've heard, his other house music is inventive and transformative, but they clearly didn’t inform the house songs on this album other than the general spacey vibe.
Overall, I would personally only revisit “Live by You” and “Sheets” from this album, but that won’t stop me from exploring more of Actress’s other albums. The best parts of this album were great, and I am excited to see if he has any other existential and transformative music in the gaps of his discography I haven’t listened to.
Comments