Continuing Modularfield‘s desire to produce beautifully designed cassettes and to highlight new and innovative electronic artists, the first side of the latest release from Emme Moises feels more about discovery and less about actual contact — but the are possibly discoveries that shouldn’t be made and are far better left alone.
The sounds drift, obscuring details or points of entry; they decay and hiss, static in a gloomy atmosphere of underground lairs. A synthetic beat encourages motion, but things are still half-seen, as if the beat is attempting to obfuscate rather than lead somewhere. It feels at points like a fresh discovery of an unknown civilisation, the euphoria of unearthing luminous subterranean caverns for the first time captured in the unfolding soundscapes.
By contrast, the second side is much slower moving and atmospheric, the cello strings are mournful and feel as though any discovery were ill-judged and hasty. If there is no going back though, there is still hope in the final track. “A Piece Of The Sky Is Missing” soothes and satisfies as the simple beats and skipping synth lines break the surface with some high-note moves that touch the soul in a way that asks: “What could possibly go wrong?”
After Marco Petracca‘s album Kallocain from last year, Modularfield have chosen to split a cassette between HHNOI and Nathan Moody. Both ply a similar vein of space-orientated synth electronica, with beats of varying degrees added where necessary.
The whole side is hypnotic and full of drama, with strange string scrapes and tape experiments keeping the listener guessing. “Vergessen” is messy, with phased bells and tape loops, unexpected drum beats building a slow space journey, heading for the edges of things, rotating in the void. The slow evolution is beautifully captured, but there is enough discord to prevent you being lulled.
The beats have travelled far on “Abgereist” and the nervous keys shimmer in their distant light while the hovering, and the dusty ghosts of voices on ”Fernweh” make it feel [pullthis id="millennia"]as though you are travelling through millennia as the side progresses until the ancient beats of “Geschluckt”, emanating from a distance beyond comprehension and distorting as they make the long journey see the side out.
By contrast, HHNOI’s lack of beats on “Staring At The Shoulder Of Silence” make it feel gauzier with less structure, but still like long-distance travel. There is an added sense of fatigue and isolation here, the crystalline single synth notes hovering in the aether as the blast of distorted rockets traverse around them. We are at the outer reaches of space on “State Of No Union” and it is dazzling and twisted, with some beats introducing an air of optimism in the face of adversity. There is a euphoric melancholy which tugs at hidden feelings, but ones that are buried and barely remembered, containing an ache that is lonely and abandoned. Although these broadcasts have been sent in hope, there is little chance of them being received as they drift further into the darkness.-Mr Olivetti-
