Impossible Nothing

DISCOGRAPHY

Phonemenomicon (2016) 8/10

Lexemenomicon (2017) 6.5/10

Tonemenomicon (2017) 6/10

Taxemenomicon (2017) 5/10

Glossemenomicon (2017) 5/10

Chronemenomicon (2018) 5/10

Phrasemenomicon (2018) 5/10

Graphemenomicon (2018) 5/10

Visemenomicon (2018) 4/10

Morphemenomicon (2019) 4/10

Mnemenomicon (2019)

Noemenomicon (2019)

Numerinomicon (2019)

Zoopac (2021)

Tzadik (2021) 5.5/10

Zoos (2021)

Born in Toscana, Italy, producer and composer Darwin Frost (also known as D'Arcy) was a member of the New York hip-hop collective Skookum Sound System before he began uploading his personal material onto Bandcamp as Impossible Nothing in 2010. Then around 2014, Frost erased all of his Bandcamp releases to make way for his "-nomicon" album series, beginning in 2016.

The "-nomicon" albums are amalgamation of plunderphonics (music made entirely from sampling) and hip-hop beats filtered through disorienting glitch effects conducted in an impressive manner. No matter how noisy, compressed, and cheesy the music gets, each piece's progression feels designed with as much dignity as electronic classical pieces or progressive rock.

Frost would designate ten minutes per track, twenty-six tracks per album, all named after letters of the alphabet. (Making the total runtime per album a consistent four hours and twenty minutes.) Sometimes themes could be deciphered from the music and its corresponding letter (words in certain samples starting with the given letter or something), but mostly I think that it was to spare Frost the trouble of giving each abstract piece a coherent title.

Frost would release thirteen of these collections in under three years, adding up to almost sixty hours of material.

The first of the series was Phonemenomicon

Lexemenomicon

As if to confirm his credibility as an electronic composer, Frost released Tzadik, an experimental ambient album of one track that is a forty-minute sound collage partially made up of the same elements that make up his instrumental hip-hop work (grime synths, glitchy/chopped-and-screwed samples, etc.) but with amplified droning techniques and percussion sections so sparse that they're almost entirely absent.

Of course, compared to Phonemenomicon, the artistic success is minor, but the drastic change in style should be welcomed. After ten unnecessary sequels to what should have been left as a fine trilogy of the first three 'nomicons, I didn't want to see an intellectual such as Frost reduce himself into a one-trick pony. I mean, I don't know why anyone would want to record a four-hour batch of filler even once let alone multiple times, but the guy's persona is so mysterious that I can't really say if he was trying to replicate the glory of the first album, if he became too attached to the same style and just stuck to recording what he knew, or (worst case scenario) if he's been releasing just discarded demos all this time. So, with Tzadik, he's finally stepped outside of his comfort zone and expanding his catalog beyond deconstructed forms of dance music into the more general world of electronic music instead.

That's why listening to this album for the first time was so refreshing! I am an Impossible Nothing fan, no doubt, but I've grown fatigued sifting through his same old influences and formulas. What made me love him to begin with was how he provided me with something new, something unexpected. So him going in any direction at all that diverts from his standard experimental hip-hop schtick is good news to me, and I shall receive it warmly.

Sure, it sounds a hell of a lot like my perspective on this is biased because of the record's context — but shit, all opinions are contextualized and biased anyway guys. No one can change the circumstances of this music's release, so I might as well take it into account and give it a positive spin since the digression from Frost's previous releases just makes me happy. But I'll be fair: let's get critical.

While listening, attention may dwindle depending on how susceptible you are to stagnant music. There are times when the tones and textures are basically consistent for ten minutes straight, which can be described as "meditative" for those who are into it and "uneventful" for those who aren't. But I'd say the random additions of sound effects and loud bass hums sustain its dark and oppressive atmosphere — drawing comparison to the cold indifference of abstract industrial music, as bits and pieces could have appeared on Pan Sonic's Kesto.

Its execution could have been more powerful if the goofy hip-hop effects weren't so apparent — yet its brief teasers in becoming a hip-hop beat (like the 60's garage rock interlude at the 20-min mark) end up being its most exciting moments.

Altogether, not amazing, not great, but decent in terms of ambition, and serviceable as a quirkier form of ambient composition for those who like a few random effects thrown in their drones to spice up the experience.

Tzadik: 5.5/10

TOP 10 TRACKS

  1. M

  2. B

  3. Q

  4. D

  5. P

  6. U

  7. K

  8. I

  9. H

  10. G

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