Hyperlink Anamorphosis

Andy Loebs loves music. An obsessive listener and sound design whiz, the Philadelphia-based producer and multi-intrumentalist merges a slew of contrasting styles and textures inspired equally by prog-rock, jazz fusion, 90s cartoons, and early 2000s radio pop. The result is a free kind of electronic music; whimsical, meticulous sounds placed along a plane of wacky compositions, each song evolving unpredictably. Over the last decade Loebs has built up a prolific output including the 2022 release Flexuous Vertex on legendary experimental label Orange Milk Records. Their upcoming album Hyperlink Anamorphosis is just as boundless and effervescent.

The album combines the precision of Loebs’ sound design with the improvisational, on-the-fly spirit of their live shows. In listening to it, our familiar world becomes both hyper-realized and rendered fantastical. There’s the glittering first track “Trolley Portal”, where bubbly plucks are panned so dramatically that we hear them sparkle in motion: reinterpreting a mundane descent through West Philadelphia’s 40th street trolley portal, into a joyride of glowing orbs and zig-zags. In “$5-10 Suggested Donation (notaflof)” we’re brought down into a basement and whisked through a million movements of a DIY set in an alternate reality: repurposed horn samples and prog-rock riffs dissolve into droney techno and gooey club music. The songs on Hyperlink Anamorphosis use pop sounds and motifs rooted in the real world that when broken down and juxtaposed with unlikely counterparts create alien and surreal landscapes.

A fan of author’s Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler, Loebs is drawn to the aesthetics of sci-fi and crumbling future-tech. You can hear this influence throughout the album where delightful plucks and super-saws dissolve into noisy clicks and metallic whirring. And all for the better, because with the break-down of technology comes rebuilding. The album’s closer “I am Smiling At My Friend,” feels deeply utopian in this way. Crunchy electronics give way to chopped-up saxophone samples and bouncy 8-bit percussion. In Andy’s world discordance and pop exist together harmoniously. Hyperlink Anamorphosis marvels in extraordinary sounds and the endless malleability of electronics.

TRACKLIST:

1. Trolley Portal
2. The Back Of The Router
3. Hypertext Responder
4. Glissando Debris
5. $5 - 10 Suggested Donation (notaflof)
6. Chordophone & Cor Anglais
7. The Word For World
8. Myxomycetes
9. Oblique Zing
10. Scenic Overlook
11. I Am Smiling At My Friend

CREDITS:

Music by Andy Loebs
Mastered by Cole Kilgo
Art and Tape layout by Adrian Wright
Photos by Luvleen Singh

Released March 24th, 2023.