Coarse patterns are carved with bold strokes and subtle movements.
I’ve always considered Last Known Trajectory to be an Electro label, which is pretty understandable as Electro has been the imprint’s main focus. But 2014 sees the UK label break with its established style, and an able artist has been chosen to mark this break. Jamal Moss, aka Hieroglyphic Being, is one of the architects of modern House. His abrasive and raw sound is characterized by distortion and a refusal to refine. It is with this brazen attitude to the rules that Mr. Moss arrives at the LKT door, two tunes in hand.
Moss’ caustic sound is introduced by “Acid Rain Under the Stars (Extended Replay.)” Metallic rasps are met with warming toms before splinters cascade. The pulse is heavy, lightened by wisps of melody. Churning the brew Moss pours 303 squawk and some extra clap punch into this heady concoction. Bars soar for “Free The Energy (No Vocal Energy.)” A distanced 4/4 hammers beneath those sailing chords, the Chicago man fortifying the drums into a pounding beat. The track sits somewhere between 90s Techno and Ambient abstraction. Murky late night moments melt with early morning optimism for a track that sits on the boundary between the sinister and the saintly.
You never really know what Jamal Moss is going to do. Under his various masks, The Sun God, I.B.M., Hieroglyphic Being, this reclusive musician has blurred, bleached and boiled the divisions of electronic music. Like so many experimenters the results can be varied, but for LKT the Mathematics founder hits the mark. Coarse patterns are carved with bold strokes and subtle movements. Two powerful pieces born in the Chicago House tradition, but from an entirely different place.
Acid Rain Under The Stars is available on Last Known Trajectory.
