Music Review // Popbot "Simulated Microcosm" (Orange Milk Records)

https://orangemilkrecords.bandcamp.com/album/simulated-microcosm

Expanding synths and dings, electronics come in then disappear or morph into other sounds.  Somewhat like being in water, somewhat like being inside Tron.  This is fast paced with a lot to offer.  The first song is just over a minute and a half, but there is a lot going on.  Popbot is truly making the most of the time that they have on these songs, grabbing your attention and taking you on a ride which you might feel is longer than it actually is.

Those same sort of bubble scales begin "Tardigrades", which is an even shorter song than the first, but we still have quite a bit coming out musically.   "Diatoms" can feel like glass breaking, then rattling and just this big ambient sound expanding behind it.  This song is somewhat chill compared with the first two and just feels like bursts of destruction.  A droning sort of engine now and though this song is about a minute in length you can feel the difference in time between it and the one before, which was about half as long.

More urgent tones come out in "Canopy" now and it feels as if we're just off into a full on orchestra of sound.  This all builds very loudly, very quickly and then drops back down to feeling like we're dancing around on those big keys in the movie "Big".  A slow eruption starting now "Murmuration".  It's expanding to where it stops then begins the process again.  A little scattered strings and this just feels dramatic as well.  Tones like a broken pinball machine now, echoing into the void.  "Alleopathy" begins with a dark, omnious water sound.  It feels like things are about to get real, as it is slow and suspenseful.  

Tones begin moving and the pace has picked up.   This sort of dissolves into the final song, "Buoyant", which can feel like water moving around, strings come out and it just feels like a magical synth as well.  Slow rolling now, almost a scraping.  Doors open and close to the beats.  Sort of scales now, within these sounds, and then a full on computer-based laser break down.  The light, it shines so loudly.   The video game is opening up to expose the magic.  

As tends to be the case with Orange Milk Music, "Simulated Microcosm" is available on cassette.  I'd be interested to hear this as one continuous sound.  The last song in here is one minute and forty six seconds, the longest of any of the songs, but to have this be one long piece would be interesting as well.  Sometimes the songs- even only at a minute long- will sort of drop off and return, so listening to this without the Bandcamp page open in front of me, I wouldn't know where one song started and another began but that might also be another great way to experience this all.