Music Single Review: “Grain Plunge” by Arcadian Sound

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“Arcadian be hunched over his keyboard, a mad scientist.”

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Single from album “Enjoyment & the Things That Bring Us Life”
Released: July 15, 2022
Length: 2:45
Genre: Bass & Electronic
Written by: Jacob Robbins
Produced by: Jacob Robbins

First Effect: S1:E6 - Grain Plunge - Arcadian Sound Song (2022) - Bass Music Single Review

I'm plunging, plunging! Someone help me!

WAIT! Is that grain or glass?

Is anyone F**King around to save me? Arcadian? Soundbox?

Wait, actually, chill. Hold back! This Grain Plunge is positive!

A single listen to Arcadian Sound's track, Grain Plunge, and the listener is sent down an endless rabbit hole of positivity, brimming with psychedelic lights, floating prisms, illusive walls, and hard-hitting grooves. The trip and fall down Arcadian's rabbit hole aren't fraught with Matrix-like terrors: daunting unknowns and soul-sucking machines — bad music at its best. Instead, the listener will stop listening to Arcadian Sound — please don't — and feel tranquility within, released from the day's travails, and the Matrix, for that matter.

Arcadian is not wasteful, neither squandering a beat nor sound. Like a storyteller, every second is a chance to build a story or, in Arcadian's world, to create a vibe. And there are vibes for days in Grunge Plunge. The listener's ears and body are sure to want more, not solely of Grain Plunge, but of Arcadian.

It's not hard to imagine Arcadian headlining a venue and seeing people dancing, swaying their bodies like the waves coming from Arcadian's speakers. It's also not hard to imagine the same happening in one's home or even to imagine one writing lyrics to Arcadian's music. Arcadian's sounds have a way of inspiring movement and of helping release tension.

Arcadian Sound is therapeutic. So, don't spend $50 an hour with a quack. Listen to Arcadian Sound.

Do you know what else is therapeutic? The trusty and non-threatening patter of rain. It's calming and serene. Some can even go to sleep listening to it. Grunge Plunge starts with what sounds like echoing raindrops falling into an ancient pond, making the listener feel like they are also falling into this pond, splashing into tranquility.

The modulated shifts between each drop give the impression of a thousand raindrops falling into this pond. How big is the pond, Arcadian? Also, the shifting intonations of the raindrops give off this dreamy sensation, like entering a flow state.

There's no gloom on Arcadian's rainy day. No! It's rainbows, blue sky, and crystalline raindrops for the thirsty. Arcadian's rabbit hole is brimming with optimism and encouragement, all by using SOUNDS!

Arcadian is a patient musician; just as he squanders no beat and sound, he, too, is not one to race between musical moments. He allows the pockets to breathe, to flap their glorious sounds. He's a turtle, not a rabbit, in this sense. So, the listener is actually in Arcadian's Turtle Hole of Positivity.

Now, indeed, Grain Plunge is positive, inspiring, thought-provoking, therapeutic, etc., but too, it's a heavy-hitting track. You will feel it in your gut as much as your soul. It's fun and playful, as much as it is conscious.

And this is where Arcadian's patience is vital. The balance of the positive and the heavy bass and drums is something only some musicians can do well while being psychological. Many musicians can barely stand on one foot and write a good hook without twenty other people helping them. I mean no disrespect, but then again, I do!

Arcadian is a one-person show; in less than three minutes, he takes the listener on a ride of smooth and bassy sounds. Through it all, the listener feels like they are listening to the diegetic sound of a movie or a virtual reality game.

After the echoing raindrops and once the listener has tripped into Arcadian's plunge (this should be the name of the track, Arcadian,) there's the buttery bass drop. The bass drop doesn't shake up the song, bring it to a new level. No! Arcadian does it right. The graceful drop opens up the music, plunging the listener deeper into the drum-n-bass vibes of Grain Plunge.

Arcadian reminds me of the heyday of Skream and Benga, when those two were in their room making dubstep and drum-n-bass, when not a soul knew them from a sound in the air.

Arcadian be hunched over his keyboard, a mad scientist.

And Grain Plunge reminds me of the subtly and care of the music in Midnight Request Line or the fun and dirtiness in 26-basslines.

If Skream and Benga had a secret love child, this listener thinks they would have birthed something like Arcadian Sound. Grain Plunge has the spontaneity and carefreeness of Skream and the dirtiness and massiveness of Benga.

But it is evident that Arcadian's inspiration is large and varying when listening to Enjoyment & the Things That Bring Us Life. There are moments of dubstep, drum-n-bass, rock-n-roll, hip-hop, trap; the list goes on -- listen to the album for all the ear candy, why don't you!

Grain Plunge is an entertaining and uplifting track. It will make one think as much as it will make one dance. It will set one's mood right. One can put it on in the background while one works, exercises, reads a book, or smokes a doobie, losing oneself in Arcadian's Turtle Hole of Positivity.

However, with all this recognition, Arcadian Sound may only be for some on that first five listens. It was like that with Skream and Benga. It was like that- and still is- with many artists.

They'll come around, Arcadian! Trust!

Until then, keep giving the world your sounds!

Liked this music review on the Bass & Electronic track “Grain Plunge” by Arcadian Sound? Check out something similar with “Stay Frosty” by DJ Dizzy Storms.

If you enjoyed “Grain Plunge” by Arcadian Sound, you could check out their eight albums — YES, EIGHT! — free on Soundcloud.

Want to learn more about Arcadian Sound? Check out their interview, exclusively on Soundbox.

Artwork by Bolivar T. Caceres

Bolivar T. Caceres is a Bronx-based artist and writer. His poems appear on ShortEdition and Ariel Chart. He is also the author of the chapbook Outside My Garret Window, published in 2020. He currently writes for the quarterly film blog Film Studies 401 and the news blog New York Positivity. Connect with him on social media @BolivarTCaceres and at www.BtcArt.co.

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