R4 is the work of Barry D. Scheffel, who ran Fusion Audio back in the late 90's and early 2000's. Recently Scheffel decided to bring back Fusion Audio after a long hiatus and I recently reviewed his untitled Red / Blue 3" and quite enjoyed it.

One of the things I have long admired about R4 is the ability to create an atmosphere in his work. It is noisy, but it never sounds haphazard or chaotic. Rather, it is well constructed and deliberate. The bio sheet states that "He operates somewhere in between the ambient and noise spaces on the periphery of music," and this is on fine display on the 21 minute track, "Reactor."

This is noisy, but not in a jarring way. Rather, this is gritty and intense. Synth lines come in below the noise squalls that provide a melodic counterpoint to the noisiness. In some ways, it is like Scheffel created two tracks, one noise and the other dark ambient, and layered them on top of eachother. One could best describe this as "atmospheric noise."

I have heard a lot of R4's work, and this is some of the best that I have heard from this artist. It is heavy and engaging in ways that keep you interested through to the end. Well worth picking up. This album weighs in at around 21 minutes and is limited to 42 copies.