As Naked scatters genre limitations, Mika covers them all in a smorgasbord of hard-hitting old-school industrial, drum’n bass, trip-hop and ambient with a definitive focus on the importance of rhythm to move the mind and feet.
[Release page] Mika Goedrijk continues in his exploration of industrial electronics—taking elements of the past and forging them with current audio dynamics. Clearly able to spark abandoned warehouses and aging factories with a soundscape that would bring rusty machines to life, Naked marks a pathway that starts in subdued Panacea mode. Breaks and drum’n bass take center-stage, atmospherics and rugged patches of percussion are disentangled—”Open” and “Nowhere” are the resultant forces. There’s a riveting breakdown contained here also—a breather, in a sense, that takes you on a trip through analog tweaks and bleeps as featured on the high-octane propulsion of “Desert Snow.” This undulating landscape is slowed-down on the tribal loops of “L’Enfer Blanc,” a hypnotizing snapshot of dense trip-hop formations composed of buzzing, squelches and a wobbly current of bass. But just as it seems Mika might run out of ideas, he takes a step back, regroups and pushes forward on the last half of Naked with a tribal flare—crossing wires between pure industrial clanging and cyclic bass sequences (ie. (“Life In) Rerun). “Highways” slides over a tranquilized seabed of lightly drifting horns and dribbling beats that elevates an ambient breeze in a Kattoo-inspired strain. “King Rat,” perhaps the most lively of the pack, offers pulsating drum loops and a dub-infected rhythm reminiscent of Meat Beat Manifesto’s on-stage live presence. As Naked scatters genre limitations, Mika covers them all in a smorgasbord of hard-hitting old-school industrial, drum’n bass, trip-hop and ambient with a definitive focus on the importance of rhythm to move the mind and feet.
Naked is available on Ant-Zen. [Release page]
