Boundaries are broken and trampled as styles limits are danced across and spat upon. A 12” that will have the neighbors bangin’ on the walls.
“I’m not wrong about most things, but I’m right about this” is a favored expression of an Irish friend of mine. The wry comment came into my head when thinking about electro recently. Now I can’t be certain, but there seems to be more of an appetite for the clinical growl of perhaps the most mechanical genre in machine music. Labels and artists are growing at a steady pace and even print magazines are picking up on it.
The UK’s Bass Agenda was recently discussed in a DJ Mag feature focused on electro. A three page feature! Alongside the fledgling imprint were heavyweights like Andrea Parker and The Exaltics. Now, living in Spain I don’t see DJ Mag in the local kiosk but that’s a big step for the label and the genre. And it raises an interesting point. With the tight parameters of electro can it evolve and grow?
Alavux is an artist who sees a different future in the genre. Hadn’t heard of him? Nor had I until his debut vinyl came through the door. The Serbian producer has been on the go for over half a decade now but Octagon is his first time flying solo on wax. And fair play, he does himself proud. The style is far from clean and clinical. Instead a grotty and gruesome sound burns. At its core is the mechanical drive of clanking alongside these lines is coarse industrialism, bleary eyed techno and knife-edge acid. Tempos boil as a tongue blistering serving is delivered. “Bondage” is fierce and unashamedly violent. Melodies are mutated, dipped in distortion and pulled out. The result is a fiery piece of harsh electronics. And this is what runs through the 12”. Tracks have a tough and tortured feel, as though they’ve been brought up on the wrong side of the tracks, kicked about during adolescence and donned a knuckle duster in adulthood. If you think there’s going to be a respite think again. Tones get grainier and dirtier as you descend deeper. “Tube” harks back to the jagged days of Basic Channel, tightening loops of psychologically chilling sound.
I’m not sure that Alavux is electro. He is, but he isn’t. The digital bonus track, “1984,” is definitely from the annals of cold machine music, but the vinyl is such a varied platter. Boundaries are broken and trampled as styles limits are danced across and spat upon. A 12” that will have the neighbors bangin’ on the walls.
Octagon is available on Bass Agenda.
