Catalyst doesn’t try to find the path of least resistance, instead, it takes the scenic route with decomposed drum work and broken rhythms galore.
Squelching sonic depth and debris
Aelk Minsur progresses as a force to be reckoned with; his self-releases as well as 2021’s Continuity and Discretion via Kaer’Uiks are chock-full of dilapidated electronics with crunchy, layered texture. It all comes to fruition on this long-awaited full-length where the multi-talented Phoenix, Arizona-based musician fractures downtempo, illbient, and glitch-hop foundations. Have a listen to the excellent “R” as an example—where artists like Scorn and Gescom have excavated familiar terrain.
And yet Catalyst doesn’t try to find the path of least resistance, instead, it takes the scenic route with decomposed drum work and broken rhythms galore—reference “Gace Dyne Aves” and “Rine.” The album eventually begins to boil-over midway through. Tracks like “Flesh Out” and “DMC” are decimated sub-structures that somehow cling together with their vast, slow-motion industrialized pseudo-breaks.
Grischa Lichtenberger transforms the spacious opening track (“25”) with remix support—the subtle blips’n bleeps, disheveled bass and glitched synths complement the original. C Mantle’s envisioning of “DMC” is a sizzling mechanical beast in and of itself; the time-stretch opening moments of distant noises transition at the apex into some kind of extraterrestrial being.
Aelk Minsur traverses many darkened genres surrounding abstract electronic realms; closing with the dystopian ambient echoes of “Sim Dyne Aves.” There’s a sinister pulse tucked away in the background that is tangible only if we let it through. A full-force album of squelching sonic depth and debris.
Catalyst is available on Bandcamp.
