Lee brings his Flush Real Pharynx 2019-2021 album cycle to an end with A Million Pieces Of You – written in a time when the subjective experience of overload came to a halt, giving way to an overbearing sense of loss, burnout and a desperate need for hope.
A Million’s 7 tracks feel more reflective, more human than the serpentine dopplers and seductive supercar engines of In A Paraventral Scale and the imploding motion sculptures of Exhaust.
A deepfake of Lee’s voice appears from the chaotic slow-mo crash of Balloon Lossy, timidly telling of “[garbled]… good news’. The uncanny spectre of deep fakes, AI and deep learning models heard via the synthetic voices throughout, give way to the melancholic loneliness of the solo piano in Empty Middle Seat. Glimmering, golden pads of Hyperpassive slowly crawl into the hopeful, bright arpeggiations of Balloon Copy.
A Million is a ride through part synthetic, part modelled, part imitation, part taught, part human, part hopeful, part reflective and paradoxically affirmative space – an involuntarily fitting final to an album originally conceived in a world different to the one we live in now.
