3View :: ProForm Series — Mantra, Type-303, HYV

ProForm has always dug its elbows into the ribs of convention and with these three grizzly wax demons it continues to do so. Callous and caustic music from start to finish with a few surprises thrown in here and there. Eight years and still as acidic as the first.

You become more conservative with age, more cautious. So the old axiom goes. X0X Records’ ProForm Series is refusing to confirm to this claim. Now in its eight year, the Finish label addicted to all things acid is trudging ever deeper down the path of techno depravity and caustic house with three releases dropping before Christmas.

Britain born and Barcelona based Mantra delivers the first serving in the warped form of Abyss, a thick cut drenched in sour sounds and dripping with toxins. Rusted beats batter a bulwark of bass in the menacing shadows and looming shapes of “Next Culture.” “Beat Methods” is just a maniacal an entity, blasts of breathy croaks streaked in a caustic haze of hi-hats, toms and smog. The title track is straight up front, head-butt to the mid-rift, banging. Carved from a very similar cloth to its predecessor, “Abyss” is a work of mangled machinery that is battered and bruised with an almighty kickdrum to leave untold bodies in its wake. The least ferocious is left to the end. Metallic incisions slice an even piston pound while beeps echo into decay for the curtain fall of “Singularity.”

Sonic scorn is poured from a dizzying height by Type 303. The Next Generation thumps with a fierce intensity. Distortion and screeching percussion are further serrated by a burning line of scorching 303 screams. Embedded in the tyranny is a broken sample, the exhalations of Kraftwerk’s Tour De France cyclists left breathless in the incessant deluge of fire and squawk. This tentacle flailing beast is tamed on the flip by the trained hand of HYV. Rough edges of the original are sanded into refined points as smooth house chords are countered by body pumping knob jerks.

HYV recently added their own two tracker to the ProForm Series. Although the partnership of Juho Kahilainen and Tomi Kesäniemi have few productions together, between them the duo have a dizzying number of releases under a spread of aliases with Kesäniemi having featured on for We Want You To Understand The Future Vol. 1 ‎under Healium. A wet clap rises in classic electrofunk fashion to introduce TÖKS. If you’re expecting some vocoder punctuated romance tale think again, the track soon bulges and mutates into a sample studded dirt track. Gritty squeals and gnarled blares are further ground beneath the heavy boot of rasping rhythm. The Finns inject an element of synth into their tracks, not through their sounds but through their vocals. “Tolkun Acid” repeats those two words in a strangely solemn soliloquy around which coils of barbed melody contract ever tighter.

ProForm has always dug its elbows into the ribs of convention and with these three grizzly wax demons it continues to do so. Callous and caustic music from start to finish with a few surprises thrown in here and there. Eight years and still as acidic as the first.

All three releases are available on Proform Series. [Juno]