Richard Bailey and n5MD team up yet again, this time to release his 6th Proem studio album "A Permanent Solution". There is an undeniably classic IDM vibe to "A Permanent Solution", one that has been missing from the genre for some time. Ever present are the moments you have come to know, feel and respect of Bailey's music. However, Bailey tears the seam on the bag of atmospherics he's been hiding and pours the contents like thick syrup over every track. The Proem beatwork is intact but there is a much heavier emphasis on letting the backdrop propel the songs forward. There are people still superfluously creating this style of electronica but not with as much depth and style as Bailey projects into his music. "A Permanent Solution" is a perfect jump forward while still keeping true to the "Proem sound".

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Well respected in and around IDM circles, Texan Richard Bailey again teams up with n5MD, this time for his 6th album under the Proem guise. Taking a break from its recent emotive electronic experiments, "A Permanent Solution" sees n5MD return to its abstract techno roots.

Bailey's style is an intricate blend of deft programming touches, clinical beatwork and anthemic synths. A style that suits the atmospheric nature of "A Permanent Solution". It's a lot less abrasive than recent Autechre outings and is perhaps more akin to the beautiful, melodic sculptures of Bola.

While IDM as a genre has been suffering of late, with a lack of ideas and a seemingly endless supply of pedestrian producers, "A Permanent Solution" sidesteps most predictable routes. The beats crunch throughout and euphoric synths are amassed to provide a startling contrast amidst the austere production.

It's always wise to start with your best work and Proem gets this disc underway with the razor-sharp "Blacker The Berry". A subtle collision of thudding bass lines, click-beats and dream-woven synthscapes, Autechre used to make electronica as serene as this.

"Wall Of Knives" delights with its defiance of conventional rhythmic rules. Instead Proem unleashes a series of rapid-fire, toxic pulses that manifests as an insane, ricocheting tempo.

"Sputterfly" follows a similar structure and cements "A Permanent Solution's" place in the upper echelons of innovative IDM. Beats are stretched, filtered and fragmented as echoic synth washes are laid over the top.

The last two tracks ("Give It Back" and "Social Piranha") steer "A Permanent.." away from its complex rhythms and involved intricacies and run as a duo of neo-classical piano-led pieces that provides an opportunity for reflection. A moment to breathe, free of the mechanical, breakneck speed beatwork that is a key factor of this album.

Although Proem doesn't quite hit the heights of genre classics like "Soup" or "Incunabula" here, he avoids the usual trappings of a stifled IDM scene. A compelling listen, hopefully this is injection of invention that the IDM genre so desperately needs right now. textura

With the Miami imprint Merck shutting down, it's good to find the ever-reliable Proem comfortably ensconced at n5MD. Richard Bailey doesn't dramatically deviate from his familiar template on the sixth Proem album, A Permanent Solution, but fans of his particular brand of non-abrasive, melodic electronica won't mind.

Generally speaking, the new album presents fifty-four minutes of crunchy beats, burbling bass lines, and gleaming keyboard melodies. Occasionally tracks take a funkier turn (“Secret Knots”) but never so dominatingly that the focus shifts from the material's glistening character. In addition, there's sparkling techno (“Sputterfly”), plus hip-hop beats give “Dual Carrier” a snappy thrust. Bailey enhances his material with subtle injections of instrumental colour (a marimba or harp occasionally surfaces) and uses a rich, reverberant production style that gives the songs a lush, at times cathedralesque character. That's especially audible during the album's final third when the material migrates into dramatic, even symphonic territory. He first gets out the heavier artillery for “Wall of Knives 2” before moving on to “Deepmagix” which exudes the mystery of a newly-discovered subterranean cave. The dramatic ante is upped even more in the closing songs, “Give It Back,” a beatless meditation of interweaving flutes and pianos, and “Social Pirhana,” which couches dramatic piano flurries in punctuating echo. debug

Sehr elegische Tracks, in denen die Synths gerne mal wie gedämpfte Trompeten klingen und die Beats sich ganz schön in sich selbst verhaken können, was auch verhindert, dass die Tracks zu esoterisch wirken, was bei diesen Post-IDM Gefilden ja gerne der Fall ist. Sehr deep und auf eine eigenwillig verschlossene Weise auch in sich erheiternde Tracks, die sich der eigenen Gefühlslage in ihrem multiphrenen Gestus immer sehr gut anpassen können. Höchst charmant zu sehen, dass es diesen Sound so noch gibt und dass er auch keinesfalls nostalgisch wirken muss. cyclic defrost

Since his earliest releases back at the start of the decade on labels such as Hydrant and the now-defunct Merck Records, Austin, Texas-based electronic producer Richard Bailey (aka Proem) has certainly emerged as one of the most steadily present figures currently operating amongst the burgeoning US IDM scene. He’s also something of a creatively prolific character, this latest album A Permanent Solution through California-based IDM specialist label representing his six full-length release in total in just over seven years. From perhaps the very outset, it’s immediately discernible that the predominant moods and themes explored by Bailey haven’t changed dramatically from those traversed on his preceding 2006 You Shall Have Ever Been album on Merck, with the fourteen tracks representing far more of an aesthetic continuation than a departure.

In many senses, A Permanent Solution comes across as a summation of Bailey’s explorations as Proem so far, as well as a ‘classic’ look back at the development of the IDM genre. All of the genre’s hallmark elements are firmly in place, the juxtaposition of soft-focus brooding background ambience and sharp, crunching breakbeat rhythms immediately calling to mind comparisons with any number of similar practitioners, the production focus falling upon the sorts of digitally pristine landscapes that have easily become IDM’s stock-in-trade. While A Permanent Solution doesn’t exactly push any boundaries, it’s Bailey’s development of themes within the genre’s well-established parameters that really impresses here.

Ghostly, floating harmonic moments such as the loosely percussive ‘Deepmagix’ call to mind the sidereal sweep of lunar occultists Coil as much as they do IDM peers such as Plaid, while the elegant circular piano-led arrangements of closing track ‘Social Pirhana’ resemble nothing so closely as Phillip Glass. Highlight moment ‘Dual Carrier’ meanwhile drags proceedings away from the drifting ambience that predominates throughout this album, with delicate piano melodies and sharp, zapping electro rhythms calling to mind latter-period Severed Heads as cut-up and stuttered vocal samples thread through the mix. While A Permanent Solution doesn’t exactly show Bailey smashing any boundaries, it’s certainly a more than worthy addition to the n5MD label’s impressive body of work that’s sure to please fans of Proem’s established aesthetic.

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