PhenoTone steps forward with Scale Diagonal, an album that also marks only the second release from Zoku – Zoku. That context matters: This is not an established act returning to familiar ground, nor a label resting on an established catalog. It is a clear statement of intent from both sides. For its second full length release ever, Zoku – Zoku plants its flag in adventurous terrain, and PhenoTone answers with a deeply experimental record that dares you to ignore it. Only a fool would.
At its core, Scale Diagonal is ambient music reinforced with rhythm rather than being stripped of it. The opening track ‘Verticality‘ lays out the architecture with slow, heavy kicks and a constant hi-hat acting as structural support beneath soft pads and understated leads. The atmosphere carries a mysterious edge, and when acid lines surface toward the end, they do so with restraint, fading back into the same sparse terrain from which they emerged. This circular construction becomes a defining trait. By the time ‘Scale Diagram‘ arrives, the thesis is unmistakable. Cosmic ambience is pinned in place by a mosaic of solid, measured percussion. The execution is meticulous. Repetition is used as a tool for reverie immersion, not as filler. The result is a magnetic sense of psychedelic awareness humming & pulsing through each track.
As the album progresses, Scale Diagram’s framework expands without losing any of its prior cohesion. Breakbeat inflections, metallic voices, deep bass pressure, and arpeggiated threads introduce tension and motion. Lovely braindance elements surface in flashes, yet there is always a pad sustaining the upper register, always reverb stretching the space into something vast. Ambient music often abandons the body in favor of texture and the implied. Here, the body remains readily present through solid percussion that gives each passage posture and direction. The restraint shown across the slower pieces makes the more rhythmically assertive moments land with greater impact, creating contrast without fragmentation.
The closing track, ‘Forward Evolution,’ provides a powerful culmination. Sub bass strikes with intent, kicks accent each movement, and distant spoken fragments echo through cavernous reverb. It gathers the album’s core ideas into one concentrated statement: weight and suspension, abstraction and groove, space and structure. For a label at the very beginning of its journey, Zoku – Zoku is striking all the right notes with these earliest releases. Paul Alexander and Jeremy Rice combine forces as PhenoTone and deliver a debut for the imprint that is disciplined, highly exploratory, deeply interesting and rightfully self-assured. Scale Diagonal does not merely sit between ambient, acid, techno, and IDM. It draws a diagonal line through them, connecting each point with clarity and purpose.
Scale Diagram by Phenotone releases 20th of February 2026 exclusively on Zoku – Zoku