Holonomy

This may be my longest review yet.

The debut album release on Inspected after 12 years of operation, and Vorso's debut album also. This is a record I've been putting off, even though I purchased the Gold Vinyl package with the signature and 5 prints. It's a long one - clocking in at 1 hour and 31 minutes and it's an album I was nervously anticipating. INSP050, initially teased for a March announcement/release, was pushed back a lot assumedly due to production delays but also possibly for final touches. There's some evidence on this due to the vinyl being a 2LP with only 16 of the tracks and also having a different tracklist order to the digital release. To get the packaging "perfect" I assume some sacrifices had to be made here. For the sake of this review I will be going with the digital version.

Vorso's already proven himself with a handful of different styles in the "Neuro" prefix genre sphere so going into this I trust that Vorso handles his production well but across such a girthy record I do worry about fatigue.

"Badlands" kicks us off with a heavy hitter already. A lot of deep textured production, I think this is a good way to start us off. The first drop is pretty gutteral and has a lot of impact and weight in how it shifts. It's not overblown or screeching - it's just really solid! The second drop switches things up nicely and picks up the pace well. The glistening synths to lead out of this are a wonderful touch that adds so much to this already pretty dynamic track.

"Business As Usual" is a more stripped back tune, focusing a lot more on the texture. It does get to some pretty mad places almost overloading my senses at times but not really in a negative way. The guts of the track are pretty sensible, being this muted half time tune. On top though there's just so much going on at times. Crunchy bass peels away into mechanical whirs before mellowing out with a beautiful synth passage. We come back into something a lot more mechanical in the second drop, like a hard drive skipping over the track. It's quite wonderfully done! This track definitely benefits from being a lot shorter as I think any longer it would be overwhelming.

One thing I'll say about this project is that it transitions very well. The digital version feels meticulously laid out in a way to make this whole thing cohesive which is wonderful but it does make me wonder what the vinyl version is like. If I get my record player upgrades this year I'll give it a try and leave an addendum at the end of this review to see how different it is.

"Staycation" is a warm and bright tune, like if Haywyre went Drum and Bass. I'm a little torn on this track. I feel like it goes on a bit but it almost does enough to keep me intrigued throughout. It's definitely a nice change of pace, with the second drop bringing a lot of that brightness up to the forefront. The final leg of the track reminds me of like a blend between Toby Fox and some of the music from Disc 2 of Neon White's soundtrack just with a half time beat. It was a really weird feeling of nostalgia (which I didn't know I could get nostalgic for a game from 2022).

"Chef's Suggestion" is incredibly engaging. Although the rhythm is going at breakneck speeds a lot of the instrumentation is very relaxed and dreamy. There's this weird Webcore feeling I get from this track like it wouldn't be too far removed from an ENA short. Although definitely the most mellow this album has gotten so far at times, I'm finding myself hooked on the incredible progression this track takes me on.

"Coastline Paradox" is the weakest track so far. Although keeping some of that Webcore aesthetic from the previous track and having a change of pace with slowing things down quite a bit outside of the Drum and Bass range I find this track to be pretty flat and unengaging. It doesn't transition well from the previous track and just does not gel with me.

"Facets" does what "Coastline Paradox" tries to do in being a more chilled reprive from the Drum and Bass tunes a lot better in my opinion. Relaxed, muted and wonderful House production, it's a lot groovier than the bounce that the previous track employs. Perfectly short and dancing on a ghostly bass line, this is quite wonderful!

"Power Through" is a Tropical House flashback for me with some instrumentation reminding me of old Kygo. This is alright - "Facets" does its job as a reprive better but I'm noticing a trend of tracks coming in pairs or triplets so as a pairing to the previous track it makes a lot more sense. Although I'm starting to wonder if this could have been a 10 track album for the sake of pacing instead of what is starting to feel like a swap between A sides and B sides. Still a great track but one that I feel like could have been cut for the sake of brevity.

"Weirdzone" definitely has an approriate title. Very wonky and containing some pretty dense bass, this is a really hard one for me to place. It's a little all over the place. Starts out very mellow, turns up the Neuro production into bonkers bass territory and then dissolves it away into piano. I'm feeling a little burned out on this reprive that has lasted a little too long in my opinion and I'm hoping it picks up again soon.

"Arps" is not that pick up in pace and energy however it's still quite a wonderful tune. Still a bit wonky, again I feel this does what "Weirdzone" was trying to do a lot better. A lot of rhythmic switch-ups to keep you on your toes, more of that brilliant production that's underpinned the album so far.

"Big Drum" is incredibly groovy! It's one that I nodded away to the entire time. I love the percussion and the beefy bassline and dreamy pads absolutely send me. One of my top tunes of the album so far it's hypnotizing!

"Palindromes" is a really interesting House cut. It's another one I'm struggling to place as there are parts of this track I love and parts I really do not care about. The deep tech house sort of sound is really cool but when the chipry synths start coming out I just don't connect with it. Starting this off I thought we were gonna get another track like "Big Drum" with crazy percussion and groove and I was very excited for that but the sudden vut-off kind of comes out of left field. Weird track. Kinda cool. Still pretty great.

"Dockyards" is a pretty sweet almost Future Garage tune although a lot heavier than that tag would really suggest. The production is the big carry of this one, as without the expertly crafted sound design this would fall a lot flatter.

The title track is a return to Drum and Bass in a pretty marvellous fashion. The build-up immediately bring my mind to Noisia, but the drop is uniquely Vorso's. Complex and dense, although deep it brings a much needed energy to the album. The second drop is bizarre and I don't really know how to feel about it. Again production carries hard - if someone else tried this really wonky half time drop I don't know how well it would work.

"Shroud" is an 8 minutes Drum and Bass epic. It's an incredible adventure in itself. Stunning and haunting production, this track will take you places. In isolation it is an impressive work of auditory storytelling. In the context of this album it's magnificent. This is close to perfection.

"Listening Station" is filth. A real bass face puller. I can praise Vorso's production skills until the cows come home, really. Might be the most energetic tune so far - it goes hard.

"Offshore Platform" is an incredibly impressive display of production even for this album. The intricasies on display here is astounding. There's so much happening here it's hard to parse at times but man this is a mind blower. It's a track I need to come back to a lot to really get everything that's happening but I'm just blown away by this one.

"Searcher" is a quite pleasant reprise from the previous track bringing a more muted production again. Still displaying impressive production and hype moments, it doesn't go as hard as the previous track but has some more organic sounding percussion on this one.

"Tricks" takes things down another level, being soaked in incredibly deep bass. Not too crazy about this one in comparison to what just came before but I think it does serve a place here in this album. Things are really starting to come together for me here - even the tracks that I was slightly confused about the placement of. Just a really pleasant track here, especially the piano outro!

"The Lighthouse" is where I feel things are really starting to wrap up nicely. A dreamy little tune which again isn't blowing me away is still a really nice time!

"Penrose Staircase" closes off this epic record with a beautiful outro to the project. Although in a vacuum I probably wouldn't listen to this alone as the final track here it fits really well. Almost like False Noise in some of the sound design this is a pretty epic way to go.

This isn't 100% what I expected out of this project but with 20 tracks and such a long runtime I think I would have been overwhelmed by 90 minutes of Neurofunk. Vorso does a really good job of keeping you engaged throughout this even though at times I was starting to feel the drag of it all.

I'm glad I allowed myself to get into the right headspace to give this the attention it needs because this is a wonderful project. This is an absolute trip to go through. A feature length adventure through sound. The runtime is daunting but the project is so rewarding.

I don't know if my brain has rotted away from being terminally online but I can definitely see a lot of this project being an underpinning to an ENA soundtrack with the sort of reaction it gets from me - especially in the first half. A lot of this gives me that early internet feeling for some reason in how it sounds, like a network of Windows 95 machines coming together to produce sounds in a hivemind. It's like a dreamy netscape at times, and I'm just floating along the information packets. Honestly yeah this sounds like I have terminal brain rot.

And that's it - outside of some singles I am now fully caught up on Inspected's catalogue! It's been a drawn out trip but it's been fun to see the progression of the label in retrospect. I'm definitely going to do this with another label - maybe one in the White Peach umbrella next?