A curious debut of dark and immersive soundsystem electronics, schwarzmodul's first offering crosses the frayed wires of doomed out dub, mangled techno, dark ambience, and bass mutations. There is a shifting sense of unease in the disorienting, glitchy atmospheres. Wall-shaking kicks and mostly spare rhythms serve as both metronome and glue for the intriguing sound collage sourced from "distorted data dumps, failed backups, and gurgling analog gear".
Thriving on a subtly menacing tension, strangled synths and the sound of fizzling chords are woven into "Subraze" and "Jader Burn”, teasing out haunting and unintelligible vocal snippets to heighten the drama on the latter. schwarzmodul stretches out into more exploratory territory with the funereal, off-kilter "Heave" and the polyrhythmic industrial dub stylings on "Variform". The increasingly startling atmospheres of “Scramble” build over a tribal structure. The enveloping beatless closer “Fade To Black” traverses exotic motifs, simmering drones, and buzzing harmonic swells.
This is the first release from the LA-based producer, who recently co-produced on the new Robot Koch album out now on Monkeytown. Robot Koch returns the favor re-imagining schwarzmodul’s “Subraze” into a hypnotic, rolling off-kilter techno exploration.
schwarzmodul's debut is music that functions best at high volume.
Press quotes:
LA-based artist schwarzmodul produces the kind of glitchy electronics most suited to the industrial decay of the city he has made home. It's a bent form of techno, a soundtrack to "big city machinery and sonorities, dilapidated architecture, circuits, and ghostly faces."’
- XLR8R
credits
released October 21, 2016
All music written and recorded by: schwarzmodul.
Mastered by: Mike Bell aka Hive at Darkart Mastering
Manufacture by Dune Altar
Photography by schwarzmodul
Artwork layout by TNR and Xochitl Avila
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