Mōshonsensu – A Strange Dystopian Tundra

Redenetic

Daryl Robinson’s Mōshonsensu creation is all about the construction of elaborate soundworlds that whisk the listener away from the everyday and place them amid unknown machinery and mysterious animals, strange sounds emanating from abandoned structures, sand-borne decay and the solitude of the vast prairie.

The chirrup of electronic birds, manifested to take the place of that vanished flesh and blood, clatters as they gather around the sweet influx of distant beats, heralding the elastic introduction and slow, euphoric build. This is more than a feast for the dance floor, however, as we are drawn into a long light-filled tunnel and as we edge further so the sound begins to shimmer, alive with alien qualities.

The tones are unusual, slowed-down voices populate harsh rim-cracks and the dubby atmosphere of “Retrograde” wallows in ’80s synth patterns; sparse, stripped and playful. The beats are often scuffed and dissembled, and the jungle noises of “Earth’s Release” evoke the synth sunrise over a calm electric sea. We can watch the rays ricochet off the surface and set it on fire for a brief moment of unexpected beauty. The pace is that of slo-mo euphoria and the choral vocals lend a sense of its own self-contained world.

It is music for contemplation and a sense of solitude pervades A Strange Dystopian Tundra, with the finely crafted beats and pretty electric piano motif of “Feel Down Innit” hinting Eastwards, while the drunken horns and tribal drums of “Tedious Cricket” swell on a loop of light. These amalgams of disparate elements go a long way to ensuring this sense of remove, a sort of dream state that takes you from one impression of a distant, hidden society to another; vague memories try to stir, but are befuddled by the ensuing movement.

Drones are vaporous, caught voices celestial, glitchy beats maddening as we move from an air of menace to that of fatigue. That feeling of suffocating warmth at the end of the hottest day is replicated on “Disposition Intact” as it attempts to soothe aching muscles and there is a kind of hope that filters through the cloying soundscape. It is not enough to fully submerge you and that is the secret to the power of Mōshonsensu. It goes a long way, but is always able to draw back before it is too late and we are fully lost. These are journeys well worth taking; but ensure you are sitting down and prepared for the unexpected.

-Mr Olivetti-