Known for his human beatbox skills, DJ/producer Boom Bip has made breaks records, collaborated with rappers, and is generally considered a hip-hop artist. Yet while BLUE EYED IN THE RED ROOM, the artist's fifth release, is threaded through with syncopated, push-pull beats that are the foundation of hip-hop, it draws from a remarkably wide stylistic palette. In the manner of IDM maestros like Four Tet, Boom Bip has made an album of lush electronica that fuses a cornucopia of samples with warm ambient textures and glitchy, digital rhythms.
From piano-led postrock ("Cimple") to clicking, laptop lullabies ("Soft and Open") to circular, Steve Reich-ian pattern music ("Girl Toy") to pulsing space-rock ("Eyelashings"), Boom Bip blends strains of 20th century experimental music with surprising aplomb. Equally interesting is the influence of indie rock here. Super Furry Animals' singer Gruff Rhys and underground singer/songwriter Nina Nastasia are the album's two vocal guests, and touches like the churning guitar outtro to "Do's and Don'ts" and the bedsitter guitar balladry of "One Eye Round the Warm Corner" indicate that Boom Bip has no fear of breaking down genre distinctions. That aim is always an admirable one, and it is especially rewarding on an album as finely made as BLUE EYED IN THE RED ROOM.