Review: Following the first volume of Impulse & Inhibition earlier this year, CT Kidobo returns to Zone with another impactful instalment. "Careful" is based on a rumbling, ebm bass which provides the basis for the Hungarian producer to conjure up a wall of mysterious but unsettling sounds. "Music" features a similarly bleak backing track, with a frazzled low end and insistent percussion providing the basis for eerie vocal samples and dark tones. CT Kidobo takes inspiration from electro on "Dopamone", where a ghostly woman's voice and haunting tones are looped over tough 808s. Meanwhile, the title track embraces a warmer style, as layered chords are fused with a pulsating bass, making for a hypnotic slice of dark disco.
Review: The Hacker celebrates ten-plus years of his Zone imprint by delivering a first label compilation: Interzone. Take a skim over the tracklist and there's a wealth of talent on display, and following intro duties given to the honorable Miss Kitten, the likes of In Aeternam Vale, Jenson Interceptor, Gessafelstein and Alessandro Adriani all feature alongside Cardopusher, The Populists and DJ Hell. For further intrigue, Marseille synth punk David Carretta drops in with "Nuit Panic" - alongside his "Moskow Reise" counterpart Millimetric - unknown entity Hyperstellar, and fellow electro buff, Maelstrom. With extra licks coming from Commuter's "Flash Burst" and Djedjotronic's "Zonorama" - exterminate all rational thought and enter Interzone.
Review: Gerald Donald doesn't release much material under his Der Zyklus guise - although he recently reissued the project's excellent Biometry album - but each time he does, it is delivered with a frosty, eerie underbelly. This characteristic is audible on "Perspective", where robotic snares provide the basis for bleak synth lines. "Plan Oblique" follows in a similar vein, with tougher, more functional drums but the same degree of menace. "Isometric Projection" sees him slow down the tempo for a stripped back, dead pace robot malfunction, while "Explosion Diagaram" provides a surprise at the end. Deeper, more expansive and less paranoid than the rest of the EP, it shows that there is a human pulse beating below the surface.
Review: Listening to Force, it's hard to believe that Damon Kirkham was once involved with Instra:mental. Indeed, it would be hard to imagine a more disconnected path to his former guise than the one he ventures down here. The title track has a closer bearing to Kirkham's other releases as Jon Convex in that it teems with snare rolls, Chicago kettle drums and an ominous bassline. However, at its core is a baseline so brutal and oppressive that it sounds like Borghesia or Laibach on speed. "Snake" is even more explicit in how Kirkham wears his influences and its oppressive low end pulses and doom vocal sound like a modern, techno tribute to Front 242.
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