It’s vibrantly animated with each sample and through the measure of performance enters a high octane experience with every precise strike.
Conjuring noisy band adrenaline like that of Atari Teenage Riot
Over a 20 year period, sound artist and drummer Jaxson Payne has developed multiple projects under various aliases, which extends over 20+ releases. MIDI Drum Compositions 5 is the latest in his series as dtub. Simply put, this is how he describes the albums from this project: “Made and performed by Jaxson Payne using the dtub custom MIDI-drum kit. Each track played live in one take. No overdubs, loops or backing tracks.”
Sounds pretty straight forward, right?
Now if you’ll humour me, take a moment to watch this performance video for “Spider Technique,” that accompanies the album:
Suddenly the complexity of each track and performance untangles itself briefly for you to grasp, before ravelling back up into this Thrash Metal concept. The 15-track album headbangs to traits of metal music: Palm muted chugs, pinched harmonic wails, vocal grunts and blast beats—all with an electronic twist. A modern one-man band, that on this particular release can be summed up as Dick Van Dyke getting curb stomped by Dimebag Darrell!
Taking a closer look, the micro-sampling and arrangement in tracks like “Air Raid Simulator,” is reminiscent of boss levels in video games, with a saturated crunch combined with intense pressure, wondering if you’ll make it out alive—like that of a mosh pit. Whilst “Lombardo Hybrid” gives a nod to Jaxson’s previous releases that explores jungle, garage, electro and IDM cultures. Keeping to the concept, these closing tracks conjure noisy band adrenaline like that of Atari Teenage Riot.
It’s vibrantly animated with each sample and through the measure of performance enters a high octane experience with every precise strike. A great addition to the series, which on the surface may seem novel to first-time listeners, but in fact expands on the palette and curiosity of Jaxson’s work and process. Makes you wonder where the series will head to next.
MIDI Drum Compositions 5 is available on Bandcamp.
