Its pounding rhythms and dark structures are well crafted and expertly composed to induce unease and dancing while create intricate soundscapes.
Mr. Jones’ Sounds For The Mute is a collection of dark, techno bangers. But make no mistake: this isn’t your little brother’s EDM fake rave music. Its pounding rhythms and dark structures are well crafted and expertly composed to induce unease and dancing while create intricate soundscapes. The drums are programmed into sparse beats while the repeated elements are not monotonous but hypnotic.
“Hush” is a quiet introduction to Sounds For The Mute with an irregularly repeating scratching loop, flanged drones and metallic sweeps like a laser broom slow brushing across the edge of a cymbal. A beeping seems to count us down into some event but what? “Sounds For The Mute” begins as a techno banger with 909 drums pushing us into a dark room where strange blasts and swells go off like alarms warning the listener that this is not rave territory but something smarter and darker that grows in intensity over the course of nine minutes. “Reversible’s” beginning distorted rumbles and swells arrive like the dark onslaught of a mutant army that roars and screeches as it moves across a dark, rusty landscape with pounding drums. “The Truth About Robots” is another dark techno workout with a twisting humorous loop of a woman speaking the title. “Til It’s Done” eschews drums for drones and alarm klaxons that warn of yet another emergency that never arrives. “Forced By Low Frequencies” also loses the drums for swelling, rattling tones, insistent arpeggios and throbbing bass.
It’s not easy to create an album of solid danceable music with almost no melody yet it keeps you interested and moving. Too many try and fail at it with an overabundance of distortion, overly complex, busy drums and noise. But Sounds For The Mute is an album that uses all those in good measure and form, making it well worth numerous listens.
Sounds For The Mute is available on The Public Stand.
