Audiopile Review: NYC-based producer X Or Size orbits the shop for a third time with his newest release, clinching his third ROTW ring and reaching rarified air here at the shop (your commemorative plaque awaits you). If you’ve missed our previous gushings, X Or Size is the pseudonym of Josiah Wolfson, who had previously mingled in the world of indie rock and currently runs the esoteric Aeon bookshop in NYC. Debuting back in 2021, X Or Size’s stock in trade across all three of his full lengths is a thick stew of dub techno and meditative ambience. While previous outings merely hinted at a re-purposing of discarded records as a primary source, Wolfson submerging the samples in a vapor-y lacquer of trippy FX and dub-wise ambience that made it hard to tell which way was up, the ghostly imprint of his sampled sources now reach through with a newfound clarity. Sure, he’s still stationed firmly in the wide-reaching school of Chain Reaction graininess, but the samples, whether its clipped vocal snippets, knackered percussion, wavering keys, or the squashed tones of unknowable instruments, shine through the mix a little brighter, coagulating into his most melodic record thus far. That said, there is still a particularly fugged-out and dense mass throughout, the twinkling melodies and haunted vocal lines that do surface are embroiled in a heaving mass of looped static and frazzled drum machines. While comparisons to the lo-fi murk that can be found in Actress’ earliest works or Huerco S’s submerged tone poems are apt, Wolfson’s flattening and splicing of samples into new forms also brings to mind Brannten Schnüre’s recycling of forgotten records, Roméo Poirier’s hypnotic fourth world undertow, or—and this one’s for the real heads out there—KWJAZ’s smeared hypnagogic jazz on the Not Not Fun imprint. All Avail does round out to a neat trilogy, but here’s hoping that there is more awaiting us in Wolfson’s vault. Edition of 300, sold out at the source.

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“X or Size deftly frays and soothes the ‘floor with a 3rd LP of craftily textured ambient house scuzz for Good Morning Tapes in a vein shared by Huerco S, NWAQ, Actress, Michael J.Blood and Madteo, but pushed farther into groggy and loosey-goose limbed abstraction. Aye, it’s good.

Formerly known as part of ambient drone duo The Geese with Recital’s Sean McCann, and member of psychedelic mutators Regal Degal; Josiah Wolfson has, in recent years, come into his own as X Or Size, whilst retaining the trippy sense of play and experiment that coloured and defined earlier works. His 3rd outing as X Or Size continues a tradition of punning titles and subtly psyched-out, edge-of-the-‘floor dance music with six bits of submersed trippiness idealised for bobbing bodies with eyelids at halfmast, on a slow arc to other dimensions.

Blessed with the finest grasp of heady equilibrium, X Or Size pull strings like a gently psychoactive puppeteer on the 10 minute opener of dreamlike physics, and aching psych-soul downstroke of ‘Anonymous AD’. ’B O M H’ follows with thee gauziest breeze of filtered vox and harmonised textures rolled out in sun-dazed motion that makes us hanker for warmer times, and ‘Ceremonism’ sustains that flow with sloshing beatdown drums paced like an offcut of NWAQ’s ‘The Dead Bears’ marinaded with special ingredients by Madteo.

With minds/bodies well massaged and acclimated to his vibe, ‘oSSo’ screws off into even trippier zones with a nervy offbeat swing and parry spangled by wettest spring reverb, before bringing up for air in the 11 minute title piece of astral planing bliss, ready to roll another one or go head first into the pillow.

Good Morning Tapes’ seal of quality absolutely assured on this one.” -Boomkat