Rave Review: Xylitol - Blumenfantasie

For her second outing on Planet Mu, Xylitol returns to familiar terrain on Blumenfantasie without sounding redundant, refining both her core formula and her sense of cohesion. Her melodies carry a featherlight whimsy, as if they might drift off in a strong breeze, while her drum programming remains agile enough to keep pace with even the most punishing jungle tracks. The rhythms are fast, cantankerous, and relentless—such that, if the airy synths were stripped away, what remained would be a barrage of snare rushes capable of overwhelming the senses.

That tension between delicacy and force inevitably recalls Aphex Twin. Echoes of ‘Xtal’ and Xylem Tube seem to surface even in Xylitol’s moniker, and her sound often lands somewhere between the serene glow of the former’s soft synth pads and the abrasive thrust of the latter. Yet these influences feel less like reference points than coordinates she uses to map out her own terrain.

Still, she doesn’t remain confined to this core approach. A few tracks branch out in compelling ways, subtly reshaping the album’s emotional contours. ‘Tilted Arc,’ for instance, drifts into lilting ambient territory, shedding percussion entirely to become its most introspective moment. Later, ‘Halo’ leans into a hazy, 8-bit juke aesthetic that wouldn’t feel out of place on a release from labelmate _Nondi, extending the palette without disrupting the flow.

In less capable hands, these opposing forces might clash or cancel each other out. But Xylitol navigates them with precision, striking a delicate equilibrium where melody and percussion interlock seamlessly. The result feels like a warm mist settling over an industrial cityscape—an atmosphere where softness and severity don’t compete, but quietly coexist.

(The Lunatic is an Austin, Texas–based raver spreading the good word through his reviews and blog—and by selling the weirdest fucking electronic vinyl around.)