Operating under his long-standing Hexalyne guise, Sorin Paun delivers a tightly engineered glitch-IDM statement via Xetercyneaal that prioritizes rhythmic evolution, textural precision, and sustained momentum over stylistic departure.
Micro-variation drives electronic momentum
Though Sorin Paun’s most recognizable alias still conjures images of an obscure six-component fuel blend, Hexalyne persists as a vital high-octane force—one of glitch and industrial IDM’s most agile architects, long tracked and still compelling on this latest statement for Evel. Paun seldom strays from established sonic ground, yet each of its ten compositions is honed with meticulous craft, favoring mechanical exactitude and abstract clarity over reinvention.
Rhythmic mutation takes center stage. Xetercyneaal unfolds as a series of sleek time capsules: serrated pulsework, corroded electro gestures, and those X-laden titles suggesting subtly altered voltages rather than wholesale shifts in identity. Cohesion prevails, even as minute variations surface across its circuitry.
Momentum and intricacy steadily intensify. Opener “Xetercyneaal Sliide” sketches volatile breakbeat propulsion; “Xetercyleccsen” drifts into murmured synth interlock; “Xetercyalldrift” pushes forward with restless, morphing turbulence. “XetersimmA” lands as a high point, merging Autechre-leaning grit with Phoenicia-like tonal restraint—an exercise in surreal minimalism executed with confidence.
Should earlier sequences somehow fail to engulf the listener in whirling electronic pressure, the closing fifty-minute expanse “Xetercyneaalldecay” resolves any doubt. It compresses every prior motion into a single extended voyage: synthetic and streamlined, shadowed yet restrained, fragile on its surface yet driven by forceful rhythmic impact. Vintage in spirit, it nevertheless projects far beyond familiar horizons, landing somewhere just past the edge of the ultra-world.
Xetercyneaal is available on Evel. [Bandcamp]
