Transferring to Warp Records and changing his artistic name means one thing, Slauson Malone 1 is doing something different. And different indeed, as ‘EXCELSIOR’ finds him embracing fluid beauty within his experimentation towards organic robustness and digital electronics.
‘EXCELSIOR’ is a budding planet born out from the dying ray of the deserted sun, the ashes paving the way to this bumpy landscape to its blooming stage. Said deserted sun is the past project of Slauson Malone 1. Interspersed through his debut project Quiet Farwell, 2016 - 2018 (Crater Speak)’, and his two EPs ‘Vergangenheitsbewältigung (Crater Speak)’ and ‘for Star (Crater Speak)’, they comprise the Crater Speak trilogy that Slauson Malone 1 composed and formulated within the dusted haze of abstract blends all across hip hop, plunderphonics, sound collage, and ambient that peels out Slauson’s thought process surrounding his sketchy mindset towards past nostalgia, the fear surrounding the concept of captivity, as well as the inner depressive and fatalistic wallowing contextualized through the countless deaths of black people in America, to the point that the smile metaphor that Slauson intentionally includes seems to serve a joy that felt empty and dour as the sense of finality seems to be in the place of nothingness. There is an intellectual thematic core to that trilogy, where the references to blacksploitation films, slitted pop samples from past eras, and other obscure samples only tighten Slauson’s intent in this trilogy. Yet, the emotional core is a downhill spiral, where the shaggy structure, the purposeful attempt to not make the project complete - hence why there is an accompanied book piece that ties into the album’s track titles - and the EPs becoming exceedingly shorter to emphasize that sense of the sun going through its final ages just makes the ‘Crater Speak’ trilogy to be an intellectually engaging, yet emotionally numbing experience. An experience where embracing nothingness works within its intended context, but can succumb everything that it touches.
After changing his name to Slauson Malone 1 and moving into Warp Records, it is clear that ‘EXCELSIOR’ is a different beast of its own, representative of Slauson Malone 1’s state of mind in both sound and flair. If the Crater Speak trilogy is akin to a certain existential demise that he cannot help but accept, ‘EXCELSIOR’ is the hopeful openness that blooms out of the aftermath of the collapse, where there is growth to be found afterward. That concept is apparent within the compositions that Slauson Malone 1 has worked with here, filling the space with his languid yet clear vocals as he now toys with melodic structures and softer brands of instruments. ‘Arms, Armor’ with its brief strokes of acoustics is a good piece that sheds away Slauson’s upper register, yet ‘Decades, Castle Romeo’ and ‘Us (Tower of Love)’ showcase the moodier strings carrying along his beautifully yearning presence on the microphone. This newfound space also lets Slauson Malone become looser and unrestrained, which is the case in ‘New Joy’ with the shuffling drum and guitar rhythms, sweeping croons, and floaty atmospherics and ‘Half-Life’ with what felt like a bedroom pop cut dipped into Slauson Malone 1’s hypnotic swirls, dropping down his dean blunt esque delivery amidst choppy grooves.
The electronics and vocal shifts that are very much Slauson Malone 1’s insignias are still perched on his shoulders, yet there is more purpose on how they are implemented, embodying the collapsing churn that is still in place as the variation is much more expanded this time. ‘Olde Joy’ embraces what Slauson Malone 1 filters through in his past works; hazy atmospherics with blasts of bass, languid instrumental tempos from the pianos and guitars, and weary vocalizations with sparse bellowing effects that occur just for a few seconds. ‘Voyager’ and ‘No! (Geiger Dub)’ offers similar warbling electronic aesthetics now meshed in the former track with its maximalist effects burbling before it transitions to a moodier, Dijon-esque vocal tones and the latter track with buzzy synth patches accompanying along the dub frolick that creates a sense of charm to the stable rhythms.
The hope that Slauson Malone 1 leans towards is also represented in his poetry, where there is more acceptance towards romance and fluid expressions through how he profess through his collage of references that overall make his lyricism quite impressionistic. The darkness that resembles a sense of collapse may still come up here and there, yet Slauson Malone 1 treads through with the thought of coming home back to a place where can be with his beloved once more, a statement that sure allows the darkness to be tempered, now replaced with a sense of desire to be with that romantic space once more. And reading through the lines, there is also the sense of being open and flexible with that romance amidst his masculinity, a thought that is strengthened even stronger in ‘Divider’ with the Arca reference in that one certain line and his inspiration towards Wendy Carlos for the overall sonic aesthetic of the record, where Slauson Malone 1 is willing to express more layers of his masculinity, allowing that romance to be in a more fluid and balanced stasis at the end.
That being said, as much as ‘EXCELSIOR’ impresses more than it doesn’t, there are still some issues scattered across the album. Funny enough, it is not about the overall structure where the sparse cuts don’t ruin the flow as they add more to the intellectual and emotional thematic throughline, but it is more on the melodies and the electronics on certain tracks here. As much as there is beauty to be discovered within the lengthier cuts, there is a part where Slauson Malone 1 could’ve opened up more into that accessible format, bringing more hooks to insinuate more aplomb to the melodies. And while the electronics interspersed all over do make sense with what Slauson Malone 1 is going for, where sometimes they emphasize the sense of gloom and clash amidst the organic instrumentation, there are parts where they just don’t make up for interesting results as the glitch and slithering atmospherics can become less enamored.
There is a sense of magnitude that makes ‘EXCELSIOR’ such an intriguing experience, the intent in the intellectual nuances translate much more with the more organic instrumentation that Slauson Malone 1 brings to bear. While it is not exceptional from front to back, there is a lot more to admire within the execution of the ideas in terms of compositions, dynamics, songwriting, and overall album structure. This sophomore project lives up to its name as it flies free to the skies, letting Slauson Malone 1’s wings lead him to a place where he can embrace looseness and fluidity, expanding his intellectual and emotional depth into an even joyous playing field.
Favorite Tracks: ‘Olde Joy’, ‘New Joy’, ‘Arms, Armor’, ‘Half-Life’, ‘No! (Geiger Dub)’, ‘Voyager’, ‘Decades, Castle Romeo’, ‘Us (Tower of Love)’
Least Favorite Track: ‘I Hear A New World’