After bursting into the world on Soma with his groundbreaking EPs then consolidating his position as one of the UK’s foremost electronic activists with two of the best albums released in the last decade, Glasgow’s Alex Smoke was in a position to realise his unique electronic visions in his own world on his own terms. After 2006’s Paradolia album, he would soon leave Soma to set up his own Hum + Haw imprint and customise his studio setup to to his own requirements. The hiatus has obviously paid off as Lux is simply one of the most stunning sets to emerge from the electronic world yet. The minimal style which Alex was so instrumental in establishing is now rather redundant as his aspirations soar way beyond into the realms of modern classical music and the avant garde. Even the vocal excursions on tracks like ‘Lux+’ and ‘Blingkered’ sound like they’re beamed in from another planet, while the metallic meteor storm future-funk they enswirl is also beyond any current electronic dance music reference points. Tracks like ‘Filla’ and ‘Physic’ continue to refine the creaking, night-time bath-murder cinema-scapes which were creeping into the last album but this really sounds like nothing else, even most of what Alex has done before. The only eternal reference point with the man’s music is his penchant for gorgeous, sweeping strings melodies born from Detroit’s inner soul meeting avant-classical stratas somewhere in the ether, like on the closing ‘Harmonious’ and subtly-swelling ‘Paracelsus’, the only track boasting anything near a normal house groove. In terms of advancing the music and total disregard for current musical preoccupations, Alex could be considered as this decade’s Aphex Twin, but that doesn’t do him justice. He’s already working with the Scottish Ensemble on orchestral pieces and could well see himself up there with European avant-classical big boys in a few years.
5 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Kris Needs