Offset One wraps things up in just over 30 minutes, yet it has enough energy to fuel an entire album.
A wide range of esoteric soundscapes
Based in Berlin, Alex Leonard (also known as Exan), provides six tracks to accompany his 2021 Errorgrid debut, Centic Primer. Exan prepares us for what lurks beneath “innoahb,” a roughened drone and mechanical sound-scraping piece that draws our attention. With technoid flutter and a tumultuous undercurrent of melodic brushes and drifting rhythms, the next work (“bell rephoric”) lets it all loose.
Through layered synths and gritty bass tones, the forces hidden in Offset One slowly emerge. “lecticra” is an example of a track that shifts with an industrial electronic sheen, while “int turn” fades into the night with a sound that resembles distorted vocal samples amidst crumbling dust and debris.
Exan explores a wide range of esoteric soundscapes; “Amst fil,” the EP’s penultimate track, rips open its thick outer shell, while closing with “arc under” scrambling musique concrète and abstract noise structures. Ultimately, Offset One wraps things up in just over 30 minutes, yet it has enough energy to fuel an entire album.
Offset One is available on Errorgrid. [Bandcamp]
