4 out of 5

Label: Fonolith

Produced by: Neil Scrivin

Across his many electronica guises, Neil Scrivin has remained mostly consistent with the output for those guises, his own name generally reserved for things that are somewhat cross-genre, skating carefully through nostalgic synth, ambient explorations, and modern electro. This practice has remained in place for the decades+ Scrivin has been recording, a dedication I truly appreciate. Beyond this appreciation, though, is my love for Neil’s music: as even when it’s maybe not my favorite recording, he plays in a tricky space of retrofuturism – that blew up in the early 00s, with synthwave getting more attention – where it’s easy to let style overtake substance, and yet, whether as Scrivin or Meatbingo or etcetera, you can always hear life in the recordings, whether that “life” is intended to be a robot or not, depending on the project.

Stars and Rumours of Stars maintains all of that, absolutely, but as it’s also one of Neil’s earlier works – from 2004, represented / remastered on his Fonolith imprint fifteen years later – the life is a bit more directly mimicking some of the creator’s likely influences: namely – Aphex Twin. And stemming from that, the record simply isn’t as smooth as most of Scrivin’s work, as we bounce from ideas that are very true to his style to tunes that take from RDJ’s beat-based ambience, or spread out to IDMers from prime Rephlex times, marking this as just a tad more directly electro than what would become a more trademarked, era-undefinable sound.

Of course, this is all being said in retrospect, with the fifteen years between the remaster (which sounds so warm, and present) and the original, and lots of yummy Fonolith works against which to compare. Meaning: had you passed me this as an early work by an otherwise unknown, these elements would both be more expected (it’s hard to escape the shadow of RDJ) and also less noticeable in a similar way – i.e. the baseline of influence wouldn’t really be factored in, and I’d probably be more wowed by the good stuff.

And it is good; very good. That Neil’s work bears so many of his various affectations years back is indicative of why he’s so awesome now, and the notes of familiarity are also somewhat fitting for this exploration of “outer space by way of digital soundscapes,” as it’s kind of a push and pull between the inky unknown and the very bleep-bloop tools with which we know how to work: influences, being made-over by Neil.