Overall a well-oiled machine that gravitates towards a darker collection of dissonant electronic soundscapes and simultaneously refreshes the landscape with semi-transparent melodic moments worth diving head-first into.
Rhythms smash together in one massive IDM supernova
Tagged as being reshaped and reinterpreted, reMXW comes across as a whole new album considering its original form in 2020 (MXW, Soun) described as “a surreal collision between post-industrial slabs, eerie glitch, and serene atmospheric sound-scraping.” reMXW finds a treasure trove of familiar audible delights with the ever dependable Section 27 imprint.
In just over 60 minutes we find notable musicians (including Dissolved, exm, JFrank, Mikael Fyrek, Nuanæ, Scald Process, Wolandroid, and 4T Thieves) ripping into Mitoma & Weldroid’s vast sound bank and recreating their own vision of electronic sound space. Highlights take shape when exm delivers the astounding “7of9” where vivid glitch strands tangle in a beautifully hypnotic ambient-electronic mess and as Nuanæ’s “Detonator MX” unfolds its contaminated post-industrial shell intermixed with cybernetic electrons while delicate blips’n bleeps unravel.
There are noisier scraping tones and drones delivered by Scald Process (“Siege (Cello Tunnel)”) to downtempo rhythms and robust electronics as 4T Thieves’ “Collage” drives down hauntology lane weaving left and right between delicate melodies and sharpened beatwork—a definite highpoint. Lighter moments take shape during a sandstorm with Abdicant’s “Long After the Siege” and Dissolved’s “Gravity Blue (Dissolved Remaining Bubbles MX)” where signature soundtrack blankets and emotive rhythms smash together in one massive IDM supernova. Jfrank takes a more restrained approach on “Mechanical Mythomania,” a tranquilized electronic nugget that carefully maneuvers through downtempo glitch’n bass moments while an ambient undercurrent keeps it flowing. Post-industrial slabs by Mikael Fyrek (ref. “The Well MX”) have a hardened outer crust while on the opposite side of the spectrum Wolandroid’s “Epsilon Station MX” ebbs and flows with effervescent vocal strands and a drifting, almost ethereal sonic sheen. Mitoma & Weldroid also offer their own three compositions ranging from exploratory shards (ref. “Tape ON” and “Tape OFF”) while “Well of Darkness” is an aptly-titled piece that grips the listener with its dark electronic swath and roughened low end.
Overall a well-oiled machine that gravitates towards a darker collection of dissonant electronic soundscapes and simultaneously refreshes the landscape with semi-transparent melodic moments worth diving head-first into.
reMXW is available on Section 27. [Bandcamp]
