Reviews

Beach Sloth

A childlike sense of wonder informs Ficture’s infinite playfulness of “Filled Spaces [EP]”. Stylistically Ficture draws from a wide variety of genres ranging from a tender folk to elements of fluttering electronics. Possessing a tremendous amount of heart Ficture ensures that rhythms retain a loose, almost jazz like approach. By far what ties all of this together is an unspoken narrative, made possible by the lush melodies and various vocal snippets peppered within the entire collection. Every track builds off the last while it rushes by in a glorious fevered pitch as the great levels of energy further ensure that everything comes together in the best way possible.

Reminiscent of the joyous output of Mouse on Mars, “Portable” introduces the collection in a most magnificent fashion. Nearly stately at times the ebb and flow of the work comes from the elastic grooves that begin to take hold. Hyperkinetic to its core “Briefly” bounces through with an incredible degree of vigor, as various voices sing up to the heavens with such optimism. Stripping things down a bit and going for a more minimal take “Second Aid” chooses an ambient approach. Uneasy tempos glide forward with the angelic “Drowner” as the muffled sounds further add to the mysterious quality of it all. Perfectly closing off the entire collection the tropical vibes of “Don’t Pull Away” feel nearly poppy in their languid tempos.

With “Filled Spaces [EP]” Ficture chooses its own path resulting in a unique shimmering vision one that stuns with anticipation.

Igloo Magazine

Audiobulb has, over the years, created an open platform for new (and established) musicians operating on the fringes of glitchy electronic experiments both in soundtrack-driven ambient nuggets as well as upfront beat-centered structures. Ficture (aka Gábor Tokár) resides on the latter spectrum, where Filled Spaces does just as the title suggests— filling skewed audio bits with emotion, subtle vocal samples, nostalgic drones, and fuzzy IDM tentacles. It starts this way on the cascading “Portable,” a blurry, upbeat, psychedelic synth flurry that tugs and pulls on the senses. “Briefly” offers chopped up bass wobble and sliced guitar extracts, while vocal strands float deep in the background—eventually opening up to rhythm-packed downtempo blips and bleeps.

Filled Spaces is precise in its brittle delivery of precision beats, bass, and brisk melodies, “Second Aid” exhibits a laidback form—an ebb and flow of subdued effects merge together and simply flow. “Drowner” takes on further leftfield trip-hop elements, its slow-motion, and drowning sound waves are punctuated by crisp, focused percussion. Closing with a remix for J Views’ “Don’t Pull Away (ft. Milosh)” is a re-processed and chilled-electronic rendition which takes the original to new(er) ground, its sensual lyrics weaved around crunched drums and evocative rhythm.

Filled Spaces, as a whole, is a well-rounded extended player of brightly lit electronic bubbles bursting at the seams with low-end drifting and a far away clicks’n cuts mood.

Merchants of Air

This is a coincidence. I was looking for something new to add to my "downtempo" folder, something to accompany acts like Bonobo, Autechre, Miwon and Boards Of Canada. Now this EP falls on my plate and I immediately loved it. It fits right in there, especially the bass loaded opener 'Portable'. All five tracks on the EP are intriguing. They're gloomy yet playful and filled to capacity with interesting sounds, hooks and angles. It's albums like these that put a smile on my face. Today's electronic scene is loaded with generic rubbish but EP's like this one show that there is still hope and that there are still great talents to be discovered.