Links to buy/stream: http://asip.me/asip038
Australian producer Rick Bull aka https://soundcloud.com/deepchild has a rich catalog of varying techno-leaning productions, appearing on labels such as Affin and Trapez and local Australian outlets since the early 00’s. His most recent, Fathersong came on the ineffable Mille Plateaux; a shimmering post-dub vista, rich in granular textures, inspired by the modern contemporaries.
Mycological Patterns arrives as a post-script to Fathersong, with a more playful approach and an homage to Rick’s love of mushrooms. Utilizing midi clips to generate chordal movement and reharmonize material he has long been obsessed with (such as old vocal recordings, vinyl rips and Peter Gabriel acapellas), Mycological Patterns plays out like a mixtape on purpose; a sketchbook of styles documenting the shifting abstract microcosms the album is titled after.
It’s an album that reminds Rick about the importance of play, especially after grieving the recent loss of his father. Featuring two tracks utilizing Holly Herndon’s AI project ‘Holly+’, the idea of experimentation and letting go spawned perfect anomalies. It was the ‘dithering artifacts, glitches and moments where the AI code revealed its underlying humanity’ that completed the concept Rick originally set out to create.
