14 tracks in all, Noumen has crafted a behemoth for his audience to consume—an electronic cacophony of analog grit, bass, and clanging rhythms, Obscurium is a highlight for 2019.
Noumen (aka Andriy Vezdenko) returns with a intense full-length on CPU coming in December 2019—hard-edge electro-glitch mayhem, dystopian grooves, and eerie sonic manifolds are scattered about following 2017’s Apeiron (described as “…a plethora of blackened IDM fragments, and disjointed post-industrial layers“).
“Mist” opens the proceedings with disjointed beatwork and a smothered droning dark undertone. Elsewhere, the Lviv, Ukraine-based musician loosens up with a serene landscape that is “Flow Through The Surface”—a blistering electronic beauty start to end. And yet, even with the influx of braindance rhythms, Noumen has evolved his sound architectural, rounded it out, and evolves into lightened pitter patter glitch on tracks like “Spleen Tear” and “Call Of Darkness” where subtle blips mingle with detuned echoes and broken beats. “Winter Sighs” also maneuvers carefully choreographed melodies with lively drums harking back to classic crunchy electronica from the likes of Bitstream, Jega, and Quinoline Yellow.
A slew of rugged modular activity permeates “Lock” while it glides away just as “Haunter” exposes raw drum action, its foray into soundtrack motifs and Meat Beat Manifesto-styled breaks midway through is a welcomed treat. “Slick Ac” could have been pulled from a lost NTS Session extract, its fractured clicks and subtle notes are simply baffling.
14 tracks in all, Noumen has crafted a behemoth for his audience to consume—an electronic cacophony of analog grit, bass, and clanging rhythms, Obscurium is a highlight for 2019.
Obscurium is available on Central Processing Unit.
