While there are moments of emotive clarity spliced in and around Designer Violence, it is clear that an abrasive, downtempo flow of hardened rhythms is at the core of this release.
Octofoil seem to sporadically unveil their creations in subtle bursts—this time around, Darkened is back in full form to present Designer Violence, a follow-up to the debut tribal-dubstep infested workings of Flipside (Octofoil, 2009).
Meandering cellos, fading voices and militaristic patches of dark, brooding bass, beat and analog distortion seeps through every crevasse on Designer Violence. Echoes of broken beats (akin to the early works of Witchman, David Byrne and Scorn) are layered above downtempo post-industrial sheets. Gritty and even rugged swirls of synth lines, eroded rhythms and buried soundtrack debris allows Darkened to pull away from Flipside‘s dubbier moments and yet retain a strong theme of sharp edges and menacing percussive burrows. “Coins To Continue” triggers a beat fluctuation, 8-bit chaos and subdued bass wobbles as the title track yields an emotive foray of future worlds of dust and organized disorder. “LFO Sickness” elicits a metallic sound-storm of low-end crumpling, slow-motion DSP beauty and an overall crisp melodic voice as “Night Vision” takes off with a fury of zero-gravity crunching and heavy percussive destruction.
While there are moments of emotive clarity spliced in and around Designer Violence, it is clear that an abrasive, downtempo flow of hardened rhythms is at the core of this release. As Darkened continues to sculpt their own signature, this Washington DC-based musician further embeds the early seeds of tribal industrial sound-escapes with ease and control.
Designer Violence is available on Octofoil. [Preview page | iTunes | Amazon]
