For years, the Chicago artist Angel Marcloid has been making wild, genre-mangling music under the moniker Fire-Toolz. As of today, that catalog includes new album I am upset because I see something that is not there. The music on this release is as unpredictable as Fire-Toolz fans have come to expect, mashing together harsh techno, noise, and screamo sounds with smooth jazz, new age, and progressive rock among other flavors. It sometimes seems to pivot between entirely unrelated records mid-track, and other times it sounds like entirely unrelated records are playing over top of each other, molding together into odd, illuminating new styles. This is a sonic universe strewn with death-metal rasps, Top Gun-soundtrack guitar-virtuoso shredding, straight-from-the-elevator saxophone, airy synthesizers, and clattering late-’90s electronic beats — as if Marcloid layered an arena on top of a dance club on top of a DIY art space. Listen below.
I am upset because I see something that is not there. is out now on Hausu Mountain.