Multiplex :: Axial Opposition (People Can Listen)

That exchange between past and present is central to Axial Opposition. Classic Multiplex structures remain recognizable, yet the melodic synthesis gives them renewed dimension, allowing vintage electronic language to exist alongside contemporary detail.

A duo creating electronics with melody as its backbone

 

Multiplex are brothers Christian and Roland Dormon, their focused frenzy of pulsating electronics sees no barriers, but always anchored by a deep melodic instinct. Emerging from IDM’s early days more than two decades ago—recall their releases with Toytronic, Senton, Piehead, and U-Cover)— they now find a home with Belarus-based People Can Listen following recent releases Colour Kinetica (Bricolage) and Human, I Love You (w/ Remixes) (Clean Error). Their historical relevance remains an important factoid for anyone new to sandblasted, ever-veering strains of broken beats, IDM, and melodic electro, yet beneath those fractured forms is where Multiplex have always been most distinctive: tuneful synthesis, layered with ambient propulsion and shaped into electronic structures that feel both precise and uniquely alive.

Axial Opposition opens with punishing electro, eerily transcendental in its summation of the 42-second opener “Reality (Interlude),” before settling into their bread-and-butter language of pristine melodies, glowing synth lines, and carefully interlocked sound design textures. Synthesizers are not simply used as rhythmic machinery here; they carry the emotional weight, allowing melodies to drift, repeat, fracture, and return with a nostalgic clarity. That sensibility comes to life across favorites such as “In Your Dreams,” “Pulsar Energy,” “Verhn,” “Aditya,” and “Neeta_x,” before dissolving into the closing atmospheric layers of “Implode (outro).”

“What makes the collection compelling is how naturally those eras communicate: older synth ideas are not merely revived, but repolished, expanded, and brought into the present without losing their original character.” ~Pietro Da Sacco

With 24 years now behind Pinghaus Frequencies (Toytronic), alongside earlier productions dating to 1999, Multiplex have long signalled a duo creating electronics with melody as its backbone. Axial Opposition gathers new and vintage material after more than 15 years of silence, sending music back and forth between studios, adding elements along the way and shaping everything into a final mix. What makes the collection compelling is how naturally those eras communicate: older synth ideas are not merely revived, but repolished, expanded, and brought into the present without losing their original character.

That exchange between past and present is central to Axial Opposition. Classic Multiplex structures remain recognizable, yet the melodic synthesis gives them renewed dimension, allowing vintage electronic language to exist alongside contemporary detail. There is nostalgia here, but it never feels archival; sounds that might have belonged to another era are given fresh circuitry, fresh atmosphere, and a new context. After such a long silence, Multiplex return not by abandoning what made their sound distinctive, but by reconnecting with it and pushing it forward.

A multiverse of melodic electronics, where old synthesis is made new again, and one that only Multiplex can navigate so well.

Axial Opposition is available on People Can Listen. [Bandcamp]