Derek Piotr manages to contain the entire package with off-kilter vocal treatments that are abrupt and hypnotizing. A definitive paradise of sonic crunching.
Experimental taglines may not do justice for Raj—Derek Piotr‘s latest (and third solo) collection of sound mangling. He’s collaborated with AGF and Richard Chartier, and continues to disseminate sound in the most creative of forces. Voices tethered in a similar vein to Tobias Lilja—stretched, clipped and pushing forth a technoid sphere of chants and dislocated by patches of bass-laden beatwork, clicks, bleeps and drones—Raj is an escape from the norms of exploratory electronics. If it weren’t for the microscopic synth notes, disjointed melodic bursts and crackling rhythms, Raj (which means paradise in Polish and kingdom in Hindi) would fall flat on a maze of mechanical audio shifts. Instead what is left to consume is filtered distortion, chimes and echoes of analogous debris—”Sands Defacing All Surfaces” best exemplifies a disruption of soundtrack motifs—dark, slithering click’n cuts lost in a cosmos of colorful noise. “Spine” tingles the senses with its submerged chaos and dithered fluctuations, both warm and cool to the touch. “Grave” takes on an Ant-Zen flare for tribal beats, squeaks and industrial textures and yet Derek Piotr manages to contain the entire package with off-kilter vocal treatments that are abrupt and hypnotizing. A definitive paradise of sonic crunching.
Raj is available on Bandcamp.
