A captivating dark-electronic album that settles on sparse drone landscapes, sandblasted post-industrial fissures and metamorphic glitch activity. Movement oriented, Realign is a wicked firestorm.
From Yunnan, China, and composed of material from the last two years creatively realigned, comes Broken Thoughts‘ third release. 7-tracks and 5-minutes a piece. Drones and broken beats are replenished with slow-moving bits, distressed and delivered in a dark cavern lined with charcoal and rough textures. “Subatomic Days” lays it all out with punctuated percussion and elongated melodic chiseling, setting the stage for what’s ahead.
The artist (aka Keju Luo) isn’t afraid to dabble with nuanced electroacoustic elements either. Listen to the spooky turbulence featured on “Douglas Firs,” “Downwards,” and “Richard Harrow”—three meandering pieces that inhabit a thick forest of confusion. Broken Thoughts credits Hecq, Ulver and Trent Reznor as influences, and one can easily see the culmination brewing on “Things Kept Falling”—an organized digitized mess, strained clips and clangs are evenly wrapped around low-end storm pulses. Realign, an apt title in itself, captures harsh electronic distortion with minimal effort as the artist extrudes abstract sonic structures from a stripped down theme (ref. “Losslessness”). The title track—perhaps the strongest of the lot—is a gritty mechanical trove that billows forth its high-pitch data stream and crunchy beatwork.
In all, a captivating dark-electronic album that settles on sparse drone landscapes, sandblasted post-industrial fissures and metamorphic glitch activity. Movement oriented, Realign is a wicked firestorm.
Realign is available on Bandcamp.
