- Experimental club tracks loaded with detail.
- The artwork for Sinjin Hawke and Zora Jones's Vicious Circles shimmers with dusky blues and purples. Is it skin? Is it jelly? Organic? Synthetic? These are questions that anyone familiar with the artists' individual compositions, or their work as the audio-visual production unit Fractal Fantasy, will understand.
Hawke and Jones's music also demonstrates respect for the power of high-end frequencies, whether through the psychedelic chirps (Jones first introduced these on 2015's 100 Ladies) that complement percussive rhythms, or tracks that combine vocalists with vocal-laced melodies (Hawke's "How We Rock" and his co-production on Kanye West's "Wolves"). When you see the duo live, it's clear they're interested in cyborgian embodiments of sound. All these factors culminate superbly on this collaborative EP.
The title track reflects the way Hawke and Jones's styles flow into one another. Tightly wound toms and big MIDI horns show the pair at their stadium-club best as a ghostly Auto-Tuned voice warbles over the scene. "Source Of Conflict" and "BabyBoySosa" roll synths across fields of percussion, while the melody of "And You Were One" glistens as it darts around like an organism under a microscope. Bright, a bit ominous and precisely executed, Vicious Circles hints at what futuristic life forms might sound like.
TracklistA1 Vicious Circles
A2 God
A3 Source Of Conflict
B1 Lurk 101
B2 Solace (Interlude)1
B3 BabyBoySosa
B4 And You Were One