Written by Pat Moran
At the outset, Melbourne, Australia-based producer DeliBass’s “Midnight Polaroid,” embraces trip hop jazz. Andres Ollari’s chill flugelhorn meanders through a thicket of skittering drums and Jon Mellor’s plangent reverberating bass, while Danae Greenfield’s sparkling electric piano cascades like a soft rain bejeweled by shafts of sunlight.
Surely but subtly, “Midnight Poloroid,” diverges from its chosen path. Ollari’s flugelhorn grows insistent and cyclical, tumbling end over end in patterns that are the same but different. Successive iterations incorporate subtle changes in key and phrasing. Growing louder, Mellor’s rubbery bass threatens to engulf the other instruments.
A pastoral break introduces sounds of chirping birds, as keyboards shimmer with koto-like delicacy. A whirlwind of bubbling/hovering synthesizer intrudes, pulling the piece’s center of gravity away from smooth house jazz to a progressive rock/electronica fusion.
The flurry subsides, however, to a soundscape of perambulating bass, sprightly synth strings, hissing hi hats and luxurious ululating flugelhorn, bolstered by crackling needle drop-on-the-turntable sound effects. With a dense flugelhorn/bass/keys crescendo and a final swipe of cinematic synth strings. “Midnight Poloroid,” concludes its sumptuous saunter through DeliBass’s garden of eclectic and experimental sounds.
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