Selffish - Blue Planet Chill

This is a collection of Selffish's earlier work, now almost exclusively available from the artist himself. While much of the work is relatively unpolished--skirting various iterations of IDM, ambient, and house--it suggests a strong effort that eventually would manifest itself in the alternately simple and complex melancholy of more recent work (releases on the netlabel Thinner, for example). Ultimately, the collection offers an enjoyable insight into Selffish's musical world. It includes the occasionally overly sublime chord swells, as well as a hesitant direction with vocals (a wisely abandoned move). But the real treasure lies with the subtler pieces such as the title track, which features a slowly evolving set of themes throughout, shifts from minor to major chords, as well as "Memo," "Hypnotic Audio," and "They Respond," a track that lies somewhere between introspective, loungey downtempo and instrumental hip-hop.