Hi folks and hello from the other side of the planet that I normally live on. This has made the blog very challenging to get out so apologies if the post is a bit rougher than usual. I’m trying to get this out while running around the state of Victoria and it’s not conducive to stringing a few thoughts together. On top of this I’ve started trying to revamp WordPress into to do what I want it to do and it hasn’t gone well. So sorry for the slightly off formatting.
But there still is great music so please, dig in.
Pye Corner Audio
The Endless Echo
Martin Jenkins has been carving out a nice little niche on the electronica scene, with a release rate that would make most artists blush for over a decade now. Thankfully though, he always seems to retain a high quality control. The fact that this album is coming off the back of the two very good eps that he released last month is a testament to this.
The Endless Echo is a slow moody album that feels as much like a soundtrack as it is a stand alone album. It carries itself on foreboding and electronic claustrophobia, playing like an 80’s techno thriller. There’s some obvious influence of composers like John Carpenter in here but it’s an atmosphere that will be much loved to those of us who grew up watching B movies on VHS.
Track two, Decision Point, feels like a film opening theme. Frosted with cold synths, it introduces you to the world the album inhabits. But, the record is not all slow dread. Tracks like Chronos and Deeptime up the drama as well as the bmp, while Counting the Hours is moody as hell with its brittle snare sound ratcheting up the tension.
This is a perfect album for chasing replicants, carrying out maintenance on your M-25 40-watt Phased Plasma Pulse-Gun or just chilling out in a very dramatic fashion in your own front room, whichever you’re in the mood for.
https://songwhip.com/pye-corner-audio/deeptime
Frail Body
Artificial Bouquet
With all the chilled out loveliness that filled last month’s blog, I missed out on Frail Body’s album. Which was probably for the best as this is in no way chilled out or lovely and I wouldn’t have been able to deal with it. But this month, it helped shake off my winter sluggishness and make me yearn for the mosh pit.
From the opening moments Artificial Bouquet goes for the throat. Screaming, blast beats, chaotic riffs, Frail Body aren’t fucking around. They’re here for 40 minutes and they are going to burn the place to the ground.
Or at least that’s the way the album feels on the first few listens. You see, Frail Body is right on the edge of how fast and chaotic an album I can listen to, so I always find bands like this overwhelming at first. It’s only after a few listens that I start to be able to pick out the slower parts of the songs and feel out the dynamics at play. And Artificial Bouquet is an album to strap into and ride like a roller coaster.
After the initial onslaught, it’s track three, Critique Programme, before the band lets you properly catch your breath. Dropping down to just bass and drums, they create space and play music that is tuneful and catchy, suckering you in, before booting you in the face again.
For me, the aggression of music like this needs to be offset with slower, prettier passages of music, or at least calming down for a bit. You can musically assault me for a while, but over an album this long, it would become white noise and Frail Body balance this perfectly.
This is an incredible album, it may be as far as I can push my musical taste with Screamo but if you are looking for a raging, cathartic album to jump start your day, this is it.
https://songwhip.com/frailbody/critique-programme
MДQUIИД.
PRATA
There’s not many acts that can do filthy dance music as a live band and do it well. People like Holy Fuck and Scaler nail it but I can’t think of many more off the top of my head. It’s pretty safe to say that we can add MДQUIИД. (Portuguese for Machine) to this list, and hopefully this ep will get them a bigger audience.
The opening track, Body Control, seems like an easy introduction. It starts with a slow, almost baggy bass line, but the weird processing on the vocal is the first warning that something is amiss, that this is going to get nasty. And then 2:30 in the whole song just gets… noisey.
The guitar feeds back, the reverb tries to swallow the track whole, while the bass just pushes the song along like someone who took a few too many pills and has not only no intention of slowing down, they couldn’t if they tried.
And that’s the way this ep goes. Denial is a filthy shot of dance punk with more hooks than a Cenobite. Its distorted vocals are manipulated until they’re more an instrument than a voice. Destro is almost straight up noise punk, but again strapped to that unrelenting bass, while something about Concentrate reminds me of the Cramps. The band also draws heavily from kosmische so you can expect long songs and repetition but never to the point that the track outstay their welcome.
This isn’t friendly or easy listening. This is knotty, ugly music that is somehow really catchy and alive. This is music that begs to be heard in small sweaty clubs, surrounded by people who don’t know if they should mosh or dance but are trying to do both at once. Can you ask for better than that?
https://songwhip.com/create?q=M%D0%94QUI%D0%98%D0%94.%20denial
Spectral Flux
What Did You Hear?
Spectral Flux’s (a collaboration between producers Rupture//Rapture and UJTB) debut ep, Displaced Reality was one of my eps of the year. Its lush sounds leaned closer to Rupture//Rapture’s melodic techno sound with UJTB’s glitch beats added but with his more atonal tendencies held back. After being so familiar with that ep, What Did You Hear? was a bit of a shock to the system.
What Did You Hear? feels more even combination of the two producers, the beats feel further up the mix this time, taking more of the spotlight, which gives the album a lot more edge to it. The mix is also surprisingly uncompressed and while the production is as great as ever, I find that playing it loudly, the bass comes out and truly shines behind the beats. You can also this this on headphones, but I wouldn’t recommend it for your ears’ sake.
Nightlanders is a great mix of IDM and melodic techno, while the title track feels like a homage to 90’s WARP records. Mosquito, the only track with an obvious guitar line, really ends the album with a confident strut.
The album as a whole is more vibes based than song oriented. This is a record that you play and sink into the mood rather than focus on the individual tracks. When I reviewed SF’s debut ep I said that it would make a great soundtrack to a Cyberpunk game. The same stands for What Do You Hear? but while the EP was all swagger, this album would be better for a more high drama espionage style of game. This is the perfect music to soundtrack whatever tense situation you find yourself in. While wearing your mirrorshades. Indoors.
It’s a great debut album from a project that I hope to hear a lot more from.
https://songwhip.com/spectralflux/mosquitos
Joy Dimmers
Red Will
Joy Dimmers play a bone dry flavour of Slowcore. Languid guitars tinged with fuzz and distortion slowly pick their way through songs without ever getting overpowering.
Pale Blue Square has some real menace on its bass with an almost doom flavour to it’s low end.
Some Division and Sand and Blood have a slow swagger that reminds me of early dEUS but Slint and Codeine are the obvious touchstones when talking about the album’s direct influences.
Red Will is an album to relax into, it’s in no hurry to get to any destination. Its songs take as long as they take and you can either lock in or bounce off but it’s worth settling down and relaxing into their world.
https://songwhip.com/joydimmers/some-division
Krostif
Druid ep
There’s a real feel of 90’s electronica on Druid. You can hear the influences of some of some of the greatest acts in dance music on this release, but it never feels like ripping anyone off or pastiche.
From the steady groove of No Way Back, Krostif settles himself in and carves himself a space in familiar territories. Dragonflies has a Giorgio Moroder feel to its synths, while Survival reminds me of something off Underworld’s Dubnobass. The track’s acid squelch makes the song the ep’s highlight.
Falling Leaves takes us to the end of the ep with a more relaxed, chilled feel.
This is a warm, welcoming release for anyone in the mood for some old school electronica, just press play and slip off to your happy place.
https://songwhip.com/krostif/survival
The ways of exile 