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Jeremiah Chiu’s modular synthesis forms the scaffolding that holds SML’s 48 minutes of Spontaneous Music Live aloft, framing the Los Angeles fusion quintet’s ecstatic communion in cascading loops of plunks and squelches. Even more than Booker Stardrum’s vigilant drumming, it’s Chiu’s electronics that set the band’s improvisatory course, often so subtly you might miss the way a single, looped gurgle adds a lilt to their collective groove, or the way his playful chirps till the soil for Josh Johnson’s twitchy saxophone phrases. He operates the Eurorack like the band’s control panel, not so much piloting the performance as gently framing it.
Edge Conditions, Chiu’s new solo LP, acknowledges his contouring role as an improviser, taking its name from the architectural term for a point where two distinct environments or materials meet, like a screened-in porch or a foyer’s flooring change, signaling that it’s time to remove your shoes. While the work Chiu has previously released under his own name tended to wander toward comfort, entrenched in the whimsical, nostalgic vernacular of contemporary new-age music, this album seeks new ways to spark the friction of his work with his bandmates, dabbling in beat-driven genres and tapping into his Rolodex of collaborators. The exploratory nature of Edge Conditions can be a bit scattershot, and the album occasionally settles back into its ambient comfort zone, but it’s most transfixing when Chiu charges headlong into his own conceptions of Midwestern house and techno, knotting piquant arpeggios over drum machine loops.
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If only “Way In,” the record’s snippet-length intro, weren’t such a tease! Collaging sped-up drum fills, queasy synths, and choked scrapes that sound like voices struggling to escape the digital realm, it’s Edge Conditions’ densest moment, resulting in a twisted amalgam of Foodman and electric Miles. The textures and dynamics of the track are in constant flux, adjusting the listener’s focus like a malfunctioning camera. The rest of the record is tidier and more tethered to conventional tropes of electronica, leaving you longing for further shocks to the system. Fortunately, Chiu still manages to keep things fresh by shuffling his lineup of collaborators, enlisting friends like Patrick Shiroishi and Marta Sofia Honer to infuse the music with acoustic timbres.
“Non-narrative,” a duet with Honer, one of Chiu’s most frequent collaborators, is a departure from their previous outings, not just because of the sizzling drum machines, but due to the Rephlex-ian wooziness brewing beneath. Where their partnership usually pursues tranquility, “Non-narrative” is all about tension and release, filling the gaps between dissonant stabs with rich viola drones. While scraps of overt beauty occasionally surface, like the cascading new-age piano melodies in the track’s latter half, they’re earned by grappling with the anxious headspace of techno. “A.M. Fuses” gives Ben Lumsdaine rein over the drums as Chiu shifts into Autechre mode, deploying wet, caustic arps. While Lumsdaine’s loose, splashy presence on the acoustic kit provides a welcome contrast to the synth work, his brief shifts into electro loops create catharsis, locking into a satisfying, club-ready pulse.
Chiu’s solo cuts, like “Night Fog” and “In Visibility,” are competent homages to arty techno producers like Drexciya and Ceephax Acid Crew, but some outside assistance could help break them out of their pastiche. Though he was the one drawing the lines as a member of SML, Chiu’s music is the most engaging when he’s scribbling outside the margins, getting a little sloppy or unnerving without immediately correcting course. Edge Conditions is a strategic entry in his discography: a test site for strange one-off experiments and nostalgic indulgences. There aren’t any extended pieces that invite the level of hypnotic, immersive listening you might have experienced on Spontaneous Music Live or spinning a collab LP with Honer front to back, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had here, teetering on the border between jazz and club music.
