Loud World is the debut solo statement from Nicholas Tripi, multi‑instrumentalist and “mentalist” best known as the drummer in Big Fun, and it sounds exactly like the record a drummer with too many ideas has been threatening to make for years. Rhythm isn’t just the backline here; it’s the architecture. Every track is built on the premise that groove can carry as much narrative and colour as harmony or melody, with everything else “gleefully decorating around it,” as one description puts it. The result is a record that moves like a collage of imaginary soundtracks: space‑lounge escapades, jungle‑jazz detours, motorik cruises and library‑funk miniatures stitched into a concise, 42‑minute ride.
Tripi frames Loud World as a “modern take on space lounge” and “jungle jazz,” explicitly tipping his hat to the KPM/Gemelli school of library music (Piero Umiliani, Alan Hawkshaw) and to krautrock icons like NEU! and Kraftwerk. You can hear those lineages in the way basslines lock into hypnotic ostinatos, in the brushed‑steel shimmer of synth arpeggios, in drum parts that balance tight discipline with loose, almost off‑the‑cuff fills. Tracks like “Blue X,” “Turbo Lounge” and “Globe X” on side A lay out the palette: elastic, funk‑friendly beats under pastel keys and guitar lines that split the difference between library cue, fusion lick and cartoon theme. It’s music that could score an unearthed 70s TV pilot, yet the production and editing keep it firmly in the present.
Structurally, the LP plays like a two‑act suite. Side A’s five cuts (“Blue X,” “Turbo Lounge,” “Globe X,” “Near Mellow,” “Glissence”) establish the album’s bright, kinetic persona, leaning into lounge‑adjacent textures and nimble head‑nod grooves. Side B heads into stranger territory: “Ghost In A Cave (Part 1)” and “Ghost In A Cave (Part 2)” stretch the atmosphere into something more cavernous and dub‑haunted, as if the earlier themes were being replayed in an underground echo chamber. From there, “Ringing The Bells,” “Plomp” and “Klomp” push the percussive logic further – bells, prepared‑sounding tones and perky synth figures orbit the drums in ways that nod to both cartoonish sound design and serious rhythmic inquiry.
