Chicago deep-house artist and producer I Am Me, the renewed creative identity of Carmen Fiorentino, opened a portal to an interstellar drift with Starseed. Long known in Chicago’s underground house and techno circuits as Twitchin Skratch, Fiorentino has lived inside club culture since childhood, from turntable obsession to Spybar residencies.
With one of the best ears for tonal phrasing we have had on our radar for a while, it wouldn’t be hyperbolic to describe Starseed as a cruise through sense-enriching sonic sublimity. The colours and gravity-defying weight of the release push past the usual sci-fi-adjacent pastiche until listening becomes a spiritual act of transcendence, allowing you to reach higher plateaus as you climb through frequency.
There is Chicago-deep-house discipline beneath the dream-state glow, the sort fans of Frankie Knuckles’ soul-centred lineage and Deadmau5’s wide-screen electronic architecture can appreciate without Starseed losing its own oxygen-sweetened identity. After hundreds of releases, sync placements across film and television, and four Beatport number ones under Killer Mushrooms, I Am Me’s accoladed future seems fated. Especially after the release of Starseed. It is enough to silken frayed nerves, strip tension away and make you consider how much of the reality we suffer is just an illusion constructed by ego.
It is not often music leaves me floored, but I Am Me is enough to sweeten the oxygen around you.
Starseed is now available on all major streaming platforms via this link.
Review by Amelia Vandergast
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