Frivolous

West coast native Daniel Gardner has been performing and recording as Frivolous for nearly a decade now. He first left BC for Montreal in the early 2000s, joining an influx of Canadian producers who relocated there when the city was a techno hotbed. Since then, he's moved on with the rest of the pack to Berlin. Meteorology is his third album in seven years and his first for Luciano's high-profile Cadenza imprint. The album's 11 tracks employ microhouse sampling techniques to build subtle grooves that fluctuate between the dub capacities of early Deadbeat records and the techno funk of another Montrealer, Mossa. From track to track, this is a record that builds nicely at an amiable mid-tempo pace, though at no point does it ever jump out of its safety zone and go for the jugular.