Dean Hinds, Los Angeles (CA), electronics & recording majors, experimental, ambient and post-rock music enthusiast, synthesizer junkie, caffeine addict and reluctant self-promoter; that's pretty much all the information I can find on Lopside, a one-man ambient electronica artist who provided me only with a disc, a distribution information sheet and a promo poster for the album. What biography I did find, was nearly as abbreviated as my high school history notebook. With most promo albums, this lack of information would strike as a bad move, but a song named "Titling Instrumental Tracks Seems Ridiculous" on his 2003 release, '37,' seems to indirectly justify this lack of information. In the same way, information and titles are quite secondary in comparison to the actual product. Without a solid album, rave reviews are elaborate lies and press kits are conceited whims, and without an album at all, oodles of information would indicate a wild imagination was at work (like a fiction author). Visible through this album's song titles, Lopside does little to imply anything you won't get from the song yourself.

'When You're Finally Through Being Responsible' is Lopside's 4th full-length album since the project debuted in 2002. After 5 years of musicianship that required proficiency in both electronic production and studio recording, Lopside has released an album that (if I had any control over) would push itself further into exoteric territory. This album, so seemingly mulled over and then furnished by tidbits of shaped noise, has an advantage over many other albums in it's proximity; it quickly satisfies many listeners in their hunt for various persuasions of electronic music. Chillout, ambient, noise, acid IDM and progressive (in a literal sense, versus in the self-applied sense of generic bands who would consider writing their own lyrics "progressive") all play a part in the quoted "rocktronica" opus on disc. Some may find it is whoring out to a few too many Johns, but the fact that I enjoyed this album is attestation -- at the least -- that the album succeeds in virtuous pop nuances.

The actual meat'n'bones of what one may hear on the album could warrant an essay, but I'll keep it short. The 66 minute set is contoured by programmed drums, scratches, beeps, sawtooth and sine waves, static, glitches, echoes and guitar, often contorted by a slur of effects. When listening through the songs and thinking to myself how I could further illustrate the amassed soundscape, the following descriptives came to mind; vast, glorious, reflective, relaxed, breathy, grieved, bleak, brave and resolute. To minimized the chance of your imagination misinterpreting the image proposed, Lopside sound (slightly) like newer Air with less sugar and more fizz, and Fennesz with less discernible guitars and more stereo width. Even this final attempt to name a similar artist proves daunting, because while Hinds seems to spend most of his time programming, wafts of post-rock are easily sensed in the song structures. It's hard to nail this down.

Lopside is not as haggard a music project as the name would have you believe. Actually, everything seems well-balanced, and no small amount of work could have been put into this album. I don't know if previous lack of promotion or interest from the community is what has kept Lopside so hushed, but I'm convinced this album here is what Hinds needs to push forward. Lopside needs to be heard, not just read about (be it a press writeup or this very review). Fortunate enough for Lopside, instrumental music fans (still) search for sounds, and not just a meaty biography. If you're one, then please listen for yourself.