ALBUM REVIEW: Flume – ‘Skin’

Over the last few years in the electronic scene, genres have evolved, artists have fallen off the radar and production quality has developed at staggering speed. Throughout all this change, there has remained one constant. Flume.

24-year-old Australian Harley Streten first hit the scene in a major way with his 2012 self-titled debut album that has remained timeless through hits such as ‘Holdin On’’ and ‘Left Alone’. Since then, remixes of Disclosure, Lorde and Rustie have cemented Flume’s status as a forward thinking, genre defying artist whose swelling, futuristic sound is truly unique. Skin, Streten’s sophomore album, has been much anticipated for over a year now, with many hoping it would mark the continuation of the artist’s groundbreaking sound. So, was it worth the wait?

The instant standout feature of Skin is the vast amount of guest talent across many of the tracks. Singers including Kai, Tove Lo, AlunaGeorge and Little Dragon all bring their own unique style to the sweeping, epic tracks and blend perfectly with Flume’s production. Rappers Vince Staples, Vic Mensa, Allan Kingdom and Raekwon also lend their brilliant flow and powerful lyricism to the album, with the latter two particularly impressing in the lyrically driven stirrer ‘You Know’ that pulls no punches in its epic production and powerful mantras.

Some have complained that all these vocalists may risk drowning out Flume’s production but in fact, they only work to enhance it and help it stand out further. From subtle manipulations of Vic Mensa’s voice in ‘Lose It’, leading to one of the most replayable and catchy tracks on Skin, to Tove Lo’s incredibly moving performance on ‘Say It’, Flume has truly proved his staggering versatility.

The criticisms I have had of recent electronic albums leading up to Skin have had one common thread: inconsistency. In particular, Baauer’s Aa and James Blake’s The Colour in Anything, while both impressing with many innovative ideas and inspiring, endlessly replayable highlights, have both suffered from throwaway tracks that feel a little too unfinished and off the cuff to include in an LP.

Thankfully, this fear does not carry over to Skin, as shorter tracks ‘Pika’ and ‘When Everything Was New’ both make strong cases for their inclusion. The first pings about with an echoey bird-like sound that ascends into deep, mellow pitched-down vocal samples while the latter is an evocative, subtly moving soundscape featuring the sounds of children’s chatter and shimmering synths that make for two of the most immersive tracks on the album.

What really impresses when listening to Skin for the first, second or even twentieth time is the sheer density and energy of every track. The broad, powerful intro track ‘Helix’ digresses into an intense stormy rager that is a sure candidate for the heaviest track of the year. Scattered spacey synths build up to a pacy drop, accompanied by a thundering bass and blaring brass that heighten the stadium-sized scope of the track. ‘Wall Fuck’, the most abstract and experimental composition, is a fascinating journey through Hudson Mohawke-esque distorted bass and scattershot drums that continually entices and excites upon every listen. As Flume himself said, his goal was “to create sounds like the fabric of the universe tearing”, and he wasn’t kidding. The track feels like a love letter to the wonky stylings of the post-dubstep sound that Streten arises from, a harking back to the wildly out-there experimentation that serves as a reminder of the broad appeal of Skin.

Flume himself sings in ‘3’, a moving slow burner that makes excellent use of breathy vocal samples and a crescendoing fervour that climaxes in a strong swell of strings, while ‘Free’ is a rapid, surprisingly heart pounding tune that provides a great contrast to the subtle, emotional vibe of the majority of the album. The album dips and dives, moving between the slower, gradually evolving tracks and the unpredictable, constantly enticing anthems.

‘Smoke and Retribution’ belongs to the latter group and is an impressive combination of Vince Staples’ loud-and-lively delivery of defiant lines such as “Nah, I ain’t scared of six feet / Cause I ain’t scared to be free” with Kucka’s moody reflections on ego and vanity with “I held you to the ground cause you were floating.”

Tracks ‘Never Be Like You’ and ‘Numb & Getting Colder once again stress the album’s focus on frenetic, unpredictable drum patterns and swelling synths, with Kai and Kucka respectively lending the added power of their well written emotional lyrics. The best is saved for last however within the closing track ‘Tiny Cities’. Beck’s vocals dominate the first half of the track, lending a refreshingly traditional feel to the album’s conclusion, while Flume’s breathy synths and punchy hits draw together an extraordinary album that manages to successfully combine the draws of mainstream pop with the off the wall experimentation of Flume.

Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.