It may not wholly encapsulate Tycho’s talents, but it’s worth recapping his initial successes, in order to understand some of his aesthetic parameters. His breakthrough album, 2011’s ‘Dive’, was something of a YouTube sleeper hit. As of today, ‘Dive’ currently has 36 million views on the site. It predates but is a clear influence on the ‘lo-fi beats to study to’ genre; warm internet refuges of gentle, pretty electronica that exist in seductive, calming alternate worlds.
Tycho (real name: Scott Hansen) is an expert world builder. His analog-meets-digital scope, bright use of musical colour and tranquil rhythms conjure serene and gently-emotional vistas. It resembles Boards Of Canada’s soft psych-tronica, minus all the hauntological anxiety. Given that it’s a much-overused term at the moment, many refer to Tycho and his analog synths as a purveyor of ‘nostalgic’ music. However, as ‘Infinite Health’ further proves, his vision is more concerned with creating a sideways (and more pleasant) world, rather than trying to invoke specific past signifiers.
Tycho’s signature use of analog-sounding (many are likely created digitally) synths is the rationale behind terming ‘Infinite Health’ as nostalgic. There’s a delightful comfort to these synths; they feel warm, safe and almost womb-like, which perhaps weirdly explains the nostalgic tag. Tycho’s sixth full-length continues to make engrossing use of this palette. The synths are deployed with impressive eclecticism, interlocking with and becoming indistinguishable from guitars on ‘Restraint’ and providing gentle background flourishes to the bass-lead ‘DX Odyssey’.
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Unless you possess a brutally-gothic worldview, it’s a heady pleasure to submerge yourself in Tycho’s world. It’s a shallow body of water, particularly when you make the inevitable comparisons to BoC and their complex, nuanced creations. However, tracks like the Bonobo-esque ‘Green’ are properly lovely, and wholly capture an air of sun-setting, downtempo chill that you’d have to be stony hearted not to enjoy spending time in.
If there’s a downside, it’s that a couple of tracks sack off the sense of seductive, textured chill in favour of some prosaic ideas and unfortunate reference points. ‘Devices’ is a particularly bad culprit. It errs dangerously close to the early-2010s EDM of Deadmau5, while ‘Totem’ is the one track on ‘Infinite Health’ that tips into full retro; all shiny eighties guitars and textures and a structure that leads to nowhere.
Broadly, however, ‘Infinite Health’ is a sharply-constructed and engrossing (if lightweight) exercise in sun-flecked, gentle electronica. To return to an earlier point, it resembles a more-ambitiously developed ‘lo-fi beats to study to’ video. The vibes are magical, the emotions are nourishing, without ever being too palpable, and the images it conjures make you see the world in a better light. It’s hard to ask for much more than that.
7/10
Words: Tom Morgan
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