Album Review: Biorhythm – Life Time

Justin Dolby, aka Biorhythm, is a freelance sound designer and mixer for TV and movies who also performs and writes Drum and Bass and ambient/techno in his free time. The cinematic and aurally spacious influence from his work in the film medium subtly informs the music in this debut album, Life Time. This album marks his third release on Modern Conveniences (ModCon), the successor to two EPs full of meditative and introspective grooves. He’s released an EP Square Music and a guest mix for their podcast, and he’s responsible for a handful of the ModCon podcasts (ModCast) as well – his DJing showcases his penchant for the deep, transportive soundscapes he vyes for in music. Justin is heavily involved in the world of professional sound, specializing in dialogue editing and blending, but also offering sound design and mixing services and lectures on sound editing. Somehow in-between all of this he finds time to write music, and while his work informs his music there is a different mindset that he enters when working in the studio.

This artist shines on his debut LP which is full of lushness from start to finish, and provides endless food for thought as you listen through. A meditation of sorts, Life Time represents a slice of history for Biorhythm as well as a canvas upon which he shared more intimate or experimental material – you hear this in tracks like the epic opening “Future State of Mind” and washed out ambient bits like “Sleep Pattern”. First, lets go back to some earlier work:

In May of 2023 Biorhythm releases his first EP with ModCon entitled “Hold Me Tight” which marked the beginning of his release history as far as I can tell, and features a wonderfully fresh and varied set of halftime and autonomic beats. A testament to his work with smoothing this EP showcases the different skills that he brought to the table, solidifying this name as a stalwart of this sound. Check out the title track:

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The EP continues on to show off the flexibility and exploratory nature of his approach, including a triplet groove that is highly percussive and some deep soothing work that suggests serious ambient chops. The next release with Square Music was a departure from this in almost every way, dialing in a dark and brooding mood with each bassline that is almost sinister or daunting. I love seeing the different sides of musicians like this and the mental ability to switch gears and follow an idea all the way through. Listen to the chimes toll and the groove slink along on “God Particle”:

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His material was refreshing to my ear and reminiscent of the early days of autonomic that channeled the deep sounds of dBridge and sustained airy vibes of Kid Drama. Biorhythm molds sound in a way that forces the listener to physically relax and release their thoughts – there is aural psychology and audio science laced in this album and it stays fresh after many listens. There’s depth you only hear once you start to peel away the layers. The mark of a classic sound!

I was able to speak a little bit with Justin about his album and artistic processes:

Firstly I thought I should share a bit about myself and the general concept for the album. “Life Time” is the name of a book I read about circadian rhythms and how humans experience time on a biological level. I’ve always been a night owl and feel at my most focused and creative in the evening. When I was younger it became quite problematic because I would go to bed later and later each day, sometimes not going to sleep until after sunrise. My artist name is a reference to this biological rhythm we all live with and experience in different ways.

 

My process for writing the album was pretty similar to writing the Eps. I’m much better at starting tracks than finishing them, so I usually have a pool of ideas to work from. Sometimes a dozen or more. Once I had the concept for the album in mind it helped me to decide which tracks to focus on. I’d already written a couple of the tracks when Akuratyde suggested I do the album, and a couple more were loops that had been sitting on my hard drive for years. I started Looking Back in 2016! The rest of the album was written last year.

 

The main difference to writing the Eps was that I felt more confident sending Akuratyde my most experimental stuff. I really wanted to showcase my sound and it was important to me that “Sleep Pattern” be on there. It’s at a slower tempo and in a different time signature to my other stuff, so I thought the album format would be the perfect place for it. I also wanted to do a really ambient piece which is the album closer Farewell. I’m not sure if that would have got released on an EP, but it works perfectly on the album.

T: Could you talk a bit about how you build the music?

A: I use Ableton Live as my DAW. Most of the work happens there and then I might add sounds from my two synths: a Korg Minilogue XD and a Dreadbox Typhon. I keep a Spotify playlist of music I’ve listened to that I think might be good for sampling, so when I’m working on a tune I’ll go through the playlist listening for stuff that might work. It’s amazing how often I stumble across something that works perfectly in the context of whatever I’m working on. Then I’ll throw it in a sampler or just cut it up on the timeline and start manipulating it and adding FX. I listen to a lot of shoegaze and indie music so sometimes I need to use a stem separator first to get rid of the drums, or extract the vocal. That technology is really amazing and has helped me a lot.

Are there live elements, are you an instrumentalist?

I don’t play any instruments myself, but I’m really into sampling other people playing real instruments. I particularly like non-western instruments because they have such interesting timbres, and you don’t usually hear them in Drum & Bass. There’s all sorts of stuff on the album including gamelan, accordion, buzuq, Chinese flutes, gongs and plenty of guitar of course.

Have you had to find specific sleep strategies to cope with (a weird circadian rhythm)?

The things that helped were firstly getting a steady job. Having something that I had to get up for forced me into a more normal rhythm. Exercising and getting outside helps too. Getting sunshine in the morning makes me feel more sleepy in the evening. I have two young children now though so my sleeping is messed up again. The little one wakes me up a lot, so I’m still awake a lot at night, just for different reasons.

You mentioned you like to work in the dark. How has composing in the dark affected your style, if at all?

I’ve just always enjoyed music that has an ethereal quality to it that I associate with night time. The world is strange and uncanny at night, the stars are out, I feel more connected to the universe. That sound is something I try to capture in my music.

A lot of producers can related to having their hands in many different projects at once… How do you balance this with your work? Do your ears get fatigued more easily having an audio related job?

It’s really tough. I’ve used my knowledge of music technology to build a career as a sound editor, but working long hours totally kills my creativity. It’s not just my ears that get fatigued though, it’s my eyes and my brain. Staring at a screen all day, moving blobs of audio around gets very tiring. I also work late into the evening so that I can be present for my kids when they need me, which leaves no time for production. That was one reason I got some hardware, so that I can still make sounds without looking at a computer. It’s really nice to get away from the screen.

How does working with multimedia in these different settings inform your music?

I have a large library of sound FX that I use when designing sound for films, so I utilise that in my music production. I like using real world sounds in my tracks as they bring a different flavour. Hearing wind in trees, or distant voices or something in a tune just adds another dimension.

Dan (Akuratyde) seems to find a lot of producers that create soundscapes that are so rich they paint a mental picture. Is this something as part of your process or more naturally tend towards the immersive sound?

I enjoy visual art a lot but I don’t have any specific imagery in mind when I’m writing. Sometimes, just as I’m falling asleep, I’ll begin to see things in my mind’s eye, like scenes from a movie. Maybe you’ve experienced that? I like sounds and music that put you in that dream state.

Was “Sleep Pattern” an already existing sketch? What was the significance of including this on the album?

Yes, I wrote that in 2019, when my first daughter was a baby and going through a sleep regression. I was being woken up all the time, and I was making that tune so for me it’s heavily associated with being a sleep deprived new dad.

I haven’t heard many people mention shoegaze, which now that you do surprises me as its a genre with a highly experimental sound.. kinda like autonomic!

It’s something I know Dan Akuratyde likes as well, although I don’t know which bands he’s into. For me it’s the artists that drench everything in reverb to the point that the lyrics become almost incomprehensible. I love that. The voice becomes a texture of pure emotion. I don’t care what the words are, it’s the sound and the guitars all mixed together to make this glorious dreamy noise. I had a teacher at school who lent me Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. I’d never heard anything like it before! That’s what got me into it.

What’s a sample that stood out to you as like a “wow” moment?

I was working on Looking Back. I had the first section up to the breakdown done, but wanted a progression for the second half. I started going through an ambient playlist and found an album by two people I’d never heard of. I stuck the first track on with my tune playing in the background and it immediately worked. Not just that it was in the right key, but that it had the perfect nostalgic quality to it that I was going for. Sometimes I feel like a fraud for using other people’s music in my own, but then I think about the great artists of D&B – Photek, Source Direct, Breakage, Calibre, Paradox etc. who are clearly immensely gifted musicians, but who make music predominantly from samples, and then I feel better!

Big thanks to Justin Biorhythm for taking the time to share some of his story and process, it was fascinating to tie some of the work together and provide a context for this music!

That being said, let’s get into the track by track:

Future State Of Mind: The album opens with a progressive piece that features this artist’s aforementioned penchant for finding unique instrumental samples. As this initial track moves along it constantly changes – sometimes in subtle ways throughout the stereo atmospherics or drums, sometimes in more obvious ways like the introduction of a new sound. This reminds me a bit of Eskmo, an experimental dubstep producer who used sounds that seemed to be dripping in liquid, glitchy but clean, straightforward but challenging to the ear. Like an invitation of sorts! I love the melodic orientation on this track and how Biorhythm sets up the vocal line, as once it appears its unexpected but ties the progression together. There are two distinct halves to this track in my mind, the rise and the fall.

Codeine Dreams: As the opener slows down to its delightful halt, this track opens up the audio space as a free canvas. “Codeine Dreams” has that ambient, shoegaze-y feel as the plodding bassline trades with a dripped out piano line. I absolutely LOVE the inclusion of breaks in this tune which is something you don’t see much of in autonomic these days, and added a new element and completely fresh phrase to the mix. Contrasted with the smooth reese and cave-like atmosphere the percussion in this second tune plays like part of an adventure, discovering new sights and sounds as it grows and changes. He masterfully weaves in previous elements and motifs and develops this tune to a pretty clear high point near the end when all of the elements combine into a master groove.

Looking Back: It is time to go deeper into the cave. “Looking Back” opens with a bassline that undulates like a weighted wheel, driving into the snare hit every time. This triplet groove in a “2 beat” 12/8 feel seems to be a signature within his catalog, including an intriguing backbeat in there that sounds like its made with various foley sounds. The second half of the tune after breakdown pushes the groove into the “4 beat” feel of 12/8 which digs into different beats. Cool track, I mix this one.

Year Of The Dragon: Four tracks in we hear a slightly more straightforward groove that is shaped mainly by the drum line that builds slowly over the intro. The artist sneaks in pad sounds as it grows and sneakily slips in a bassline that provides a nice loose tonal context for the atmospheric content. “Year Of The Dragon” is more subtle than the previous tracks and requires more than one listen to really appreciate – every single bar within every single phrase changes something, and once you really hear each bit and it’s timing within the groove it grows in your mind. This also marks a clear turning point in the album’s flow, a chapter closed if you will.

Searching For Sunrise: Opening with a stepp-y drum pattern and meditative pad line, Biorhythm nails the ‘sunrise’ motif in this intro and invites the listener into their own mind. As I listened to this more and more I thought about this tune as a metaphor for the challenges with finding positivity while surrounded by uncertainty – we all experience a feeling of loss of direction or marked confusion at some point. There are also two clear musical ideas in this piece, one suggesting a Major more uplifting feel with big, open-fifths, and one a bit more moody and tense with suspensions in the chordal structure. The real genius of this track once again is the smooth and almost indiscernable transition between these two things while still maintaining an overall idea that makes sense. This one eventually had lyrics in my head the more I got through it. One of my favorites on the album.

Bathed In Light: I just love this tune. Everything from the reggae-inspired groove to the stomping bassline works together to create this feeling of forward motion, and the artist uses this to great effect as he moves through his phrasing. Another great example of the narrative quality of these tunes, this piece moves through iterations that are each confident and assured. I really appreciate the use of percussion in this tune – pay really close attention to how he levels each element and how they fade in and out. Everything is moving all the time in this music, and while things may go into the background they don’t fade away, just transform into something new. Fantastic track.

Memory Jar: Classic autonomic vibes are the threads that hold this track together, and from the tense opening hi-hats to the offbeat yet driving groove this one pays homage to the sounds that came before. Breaking down to almost nothing in the middle, Biorhythm explores more of the ambient, shoegaze sound that folds heavy reverb into every possible nook as it closes out. Interesting overarching phrases here as well that feature evolving atmospheres paired with touches of instrumentation – lose yourself in memory as you listen through.

Awakening: The composition in “Awakening” feels like a continuation of the previous piece, starting with a whisper of sound and gently moving to a contrasting pair of motifs. Between the descending bassline and the upward motion of the melodic content there is a poignant balance within this music that provides an immersive and meditative listening experience, contrasting the drive and punch of the first tunes. A lovely refresher and pair to “Memory Jar” that sets up what’s coming next.

The Gulf Between The Stars: Right from the beginning we are greeted with another unique time signature (or at least feel of 8/4) that utilizes a full tempo, almost 4×4 beat which dances throughout the tune. While bouncy and fun you can notice a good amount of tension in the tonal choices, digging into suspensions and extended intervals. When you hear this piece progress pay close attention to this tension because I think it is just as important as the main in-your-face groove; the pads and atmospheres are downright celestial and contain a lot of musical information.

Sleep Pattern: The artist mentioned that this track was an important personal inclusion to the album for various reasons, and I agree in it’s importance in the flow of this sound. There’s a distorted bass that glues this triplet-y groove together, there’s a groove that flits in and out of forward motion and backward motion, and an overall tech-y feel – all of which I think acts as a palate cleanser and a testament to this artists willingness to experiment. “Sleep Pattern” holds up to the overall ideas present in composition despite the unique profile, and the tonal switch in this second half is particularly clever. The bassline is a minor 3rd interval through the entire tune, but once a new layer on the snare pops in which is tuned to the tonic he takes additional tones from the relative Major key to create that uplifting feel. Great stuff.

Endless Night: Another topical title, the penultimate track opens slowly as if night has descended from evening and quickly paints a sonic scene. Cricket like percussion tickle the ear as foley dance around the stereo layer; fireflies’ flashes on a nighttime stroll. The artist uses a striking main snare in this piece to denote different sections and rhythmic changes that continue adding depth to the picture. This piece gave me a really clear visual in my head of a misty evening walk lit by streetlights, while your mind processes and compresses the day’s information into memory. The dynamics in these closing tracks are particularly special to the lsitening experience – not only does it take a delicate and musical touch to maintain proper dynamics in electronic music, but it adds a depth of feeling that completely changes how you hear sound.

Farewell: A fit closing, “Farewell” slows the tempo down respective to the rest of the album and provides a clarity that is akin to a grand realization. The percussion is simple but like a ballad, accompanying the somber atmosphere with a precise but behind-the-beat groove. The timing in this piece is unreal. In places it feels like it has actually slowed down until you hear the slap of the conga in place of the snare. When the bass and strings come in, the drum focuses on the ‘pop’ sound only. Waves of sound and noise move in and out of the landscape between the lugubrious tonal content. Smooth is an understatement here, and with all of these bold musical elements still is one of the most cohesive tracks on the whole album. I wish this was about 20 minutes long. Absolutely incredible material to close this journey out.

I’m really struck throughout this album by the composition – there is a similarity between each track in the ‘distinct halves’ idea but that provides valuable context amogst such amorphous sonic landscapes. This consistent motif shows a stylistic approach that is considerate of every single sound in the compositions, perfecting their place in time as well as in the mix to such a degree that the intention is transferred perfectly to the listener. Everything is intriguing, yet nothing is out of place.

The history that Justin provided here gave me a picture of how he approaches music in general, and the interconnectedness that I described here mirrors some of the conversation we had. His artist name, “Biorhythm” relates to sleep cycles which are totally a universal human experience, yet completely different to the individual – this type of juxtaposition provides a rich and poignant emotional experience for anyone, and he has translated this into an album that compels you to think a little deeper.

Huge thanks to Dan Akuratyde and Justin Biorhythm for sharing this music with the world, and for giving us here at BDNB the opportunity to shine a spotlight on what your crew is doing! Check out what Biorhythm has been up to below:

Biorhythm Linktree ModCon Links