This album will shock you like Linear Accelerator did last year. Either with his Dopplereffekt or Der Zyklus alias, Gerald Donald is one of the true geniuses that really push the boundaries of electronic music. Since the very first track, “Biometry,” you begin to understand that you are listening to something different as compared to what you’ve heard in recent times.
The ambience is unsettling, claustrophobic and nervous, the sensations are those of a bee trapped under a glass. The second track doesn’t help you with escaping these feelings of anxiety, sinister glacial bleeps push you toward an eerie maelstrom of bass frequencies. “Eigenface” scarcely resembles previous Der Zyklus material, there are some electro elements but they are so twisted and manipulated that you can’t consider this a dance-floor tune, like the Gigolo EPs were. “Biometric ID” is a nocturnal dream-quest accompanied with the usual soft cyborg voice (like in the Arpanet’s album intro). “Biometric Systems” finally shows a proper rhythmic pattern, but it’s only a prelude to the alien journey of “Facial Vectors,” nine minutes of synthetic breathing and electronic bubbling. And then pure experimentation. Der Zyklus leaves us with the ethereal tones of “4000 Irises,” which reminds me of the equally charming “Myon Neutrino” of Dopplereffekt fame.
Four tiny tracks, scary, intense, ranging from piercing beats and buzzing bass to deconstructed rhythms and mental frequencies. I hope I gave you an idea as to why Biometry is my 2004 favorite album.
Biometry is out now on DUB.
