Fire-Toolz, the moniker of Chicago-based experimental electronic producer Angel Marcloid, hasn’t really existed in one space despite the first line of this post to center her into one. She began her creative arc making late Aughts screamo with her band Age Sixteen, and has since evolved with the noise of the times, be it manifested in the form cybercore, glitchwave, vaporwave, ambient electronica, new age, EBM, IDM, art-pop — you get the idea. She’s the embodiment of the post-genre sound.

Last year, Fire-Toolz played an integral role in rendering the soundscape of No Joy’s excellent futuristic shoegaze standout, Bugland, and for many, this was their first introduction to her work despite her previous prolificity. That moment amplifies itself into something all her own on her new album — and first for Warp Records — Lavender Networks. The listen is a culmination of Fire-Toolz’s full body to date while doubling as a proper introduction to Marcloid’s exploitive sensory du jour that touches on all of the above in one delightfully kinetic sitting.

While its early highlights in the digi-black metal meld of “Balam =^..^= Says IPv09082024 Strawberry Head” or the scorched dream-pop of “And Where Is The Heart? I’ve Searched My Entire Home” featuring country church lady Jennifer Holm suggested a balance between all of the ids, there are many extremes to be discovered which Marcloid equally puts her own fingerprints all over. “The Ocean Gratitude Cylinder Peace Necklace Lemonade Flying Free”, for example, is extreme hardcore where its heavy riffs are ornated with kaleidoscopic keys and a free-flowing sax that sophisticates its surging energy. “A Demon & Its Spinal Cord Flapping In The Wind” rewires the central nervous system by hacking the brain, while interstitials “Kiss The Bladed Cat, Find Ways To Stretch Time” and “Dear Robin Bears & Love Cloud ’24” reimagine our surrounding physical planes through her warped, electronic-gazing canvas.

Along the way, appearances from the experimental field recording artist Lipsticism on “[CODENAME_SPARKLY LAGOON LAN LINE]” invert the core of metal while together, Marcloid and partner in fellow experimentalist Sling Beam, ascend the “Pleasant Valley Magic Cube Of Holiness” through an alternative spiritual dimension. All of this without overlooking a cosmic phoenix return by Zola Jesus in a cinematic, embryonic sci-fi synth-and-screamo voyage on the Brothertiger and Nailah Hunter-featuring opener “Quintessential Fixed Width Unfoldment”. There’s no other spectrum or realm in music right now that sounds like the ones Fire-Toolz uses to build these worlds. As a true offering in fearless singularity, Lavender Networks finds a way to connect them all through one universe.

Highlights: “Quintessential Fixed Width Unfoldment”, “Balam =^..^= Says IPv09082024 Strawberry Head”, “The Ocean Gratitude Cylinder Peace Necklace Lemonade Flying Free”

Fire-Toolz’ Lavender Networks is available now on Warp Records.

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