Stephen James Buckley continues the transmogrification of Polypores, with arguably his most alluring and hypnotic album to date

Increasingly productive in his Polypores guise (before we even get to his side-operations with Stefano Leproto), Stephen James Buckley has spread his wares across shared-cassette releases on This Is It Forever and Front & Follow, multi-artist compilations and a handful of Bandcamp-only digital EPs since 2017’s The Impossibility LP on Polytechnic Youth. Over this accelerated bout of between-albums activity has also come a cumulative and steady refinement of the Polypores aural lexicon, particularly in dialling down the heavily-percussive trajectories that dominated The Impossibility and its formal 2016 predecessor The Fialka Transmissions, in favour of more meditative routes. This shift reaches a new pinnacle on Flora, the first full-length Polypores set for Castles In Space.

Wrapped in terrific Nick Taylor artwork – that’s one-part Terry Gilliam surrealism and one-part vintage natural history book – this ten-track collection channels thoughts on Buckley’s outdoor explorations of tree-heavy countryside environments in north-west England to grow organic reflections with nurturing synthetic tools.

The opening “From the Tangle” is a fine scene-setter, blurring field recordings of watercourses and bird life into soothing and murmuring synths, with a combination of calmness and creepiness. The ensuing title-track is even more hypnotic, featuring electronics that burble and bob like Tangerine Dream lost in a forest. Thereafter, the album follows conduits that are both ethereal and earthy. Thus, “Isolated Ecosystem” and “Giants” graft together percolating beats, languid low-end reverberations and elemental drones; “Autotrophs”, “Golden Mold” and “Mycelia” glisten and ripple like Brian Eno holed-up in a rain-soaked log-cabin with Cluster; whilst “The Blusher”, “Strangerbrook” and “Sky Man” bathe in immersive dissonant aquatic ambience akin to Modular Living-era Eat Lights Become Lights.

Although some may miss the more propulsive elements that possessed earlier Polypores releases, across Flora the more restrained and considered approach works with a gratifying consistency that befits a maturing meticulous craftsman.

castlesinspace.bandcamp.com

Adrian
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