Label: M_Rec Ltd Grey Series
Cat.N: MRECLTDGS07
Format: 12" Vinyl
Release: December 2013
Tracklist:
A1: In Umbra
A2: Xemx
B1: Coronal Loop
B2: The Fuck Up
" There is nothing left to watch but fire and the night: circle within circle, light within light. Messages arrive in the net where discrete pulses cross. Parametal engines of joy and disaster give them wave and motion. We interpret and defeat their terms by terminus. The night? What of it. It is filled with bestial watchmen, trammeling the extremities and the interstices of the timeless city, portents fallen, constellated deities plummeting in ash and smoke, roaming the apocryphal cities, the cities of speculation and reconstituted disorder, of insemination and incipience, swept round with the dark.”
Juho Kahilainen -the man who actually inspired label owner Max_M to conceive the Grey Series sublabel- returns with a new EP of experimental excursions that delve into the darkest realms of dance music.
From the opener 'In Umbra', the sense of freedom and detachment from genres' standards and limitations is palpable. It's a tense, stripped down drum pattern that might adhere to the recent resurgence of broken beats, hosting a breathtaking and unapologetic melody from the heyday of idm that only ends in a sea of bass reverbs. Undefinable.
'Xemx' has a regular 4/4, rich with vintage analog sounds. The thick layer of spacey and sinister soundwaves that slowly grows inside it reinforces the thematic nature of the EP, inspired by the artist's emotional reflections on the "Dyson sphere", a scientific concept imagining a system of orbiting solar-power satellites meant to completely encompass a star and capture most or all of its energy output.
On the flipside 'Coronal Loop' is an exercise in analog techno shamanism. You could say that this is a friendlier track, gelid and dark, but with that forward-driving bassline that defines irresistible techno.
Closing the EP, 'The Fuck Up' is a similar experiment where the loops gets nastier, interestingly enhanced by elements of raw Detroit techno. It's mind-bending dance music dedicated to those who lose themselves captured by the properties of good techno.
Max_M and his Grey Series continue to grant freedom to artists deviating from cliches and formulas. Juho's "Dyson Sphere" encompasses that exact desire.
