The coldness of the machine only appears in the higher notes, frost clinging to them as they descend from the stratosphere. Structures are transparent, plates slide, collide and slip past one another as solidity is reduced to a concept.
There’s no point in approaching Lower Parts with a pre-set idea. The Athenian imprint has proven time and again that it will stick to no set formula. IDM filtered techno, bawdy and brash house, pickled acid and thoughtful electro have all been explored. Despite this intrepid nature, the style pursued of Ioannis Savaidis has yet to be heard on the Greek platform.
And how do you go about describing the sounds of Savaidis. With difficulty is the answer. If you were trying to fix it to one point, ambient. But it’s not. Drone. A little. Electronic. Well, yes. What this newcomer does is different. Echo and fade are central columns to his style. Tracks are textured, doubled in on themselves before blooming once again. The press release that accompanies talks of Savaidis’ schoolboy love of programming but it is only titles tether these organic expressions to the machine world that gave them form. “GE 645 Mainframe Computers.” “IEEE 802.” “IBM 2870.” All daydream into the mists of a neon light future. Beeps and bleeps, softened keys, are sent skyward, ricocheting back to earth before crossing each other’s path again. The coldness of the machine only appears in the higher notes, frost clinging to them as they descend from the stratosphere. Structures are transparent, plates slide, collide and slip past one another as solidity is reduced to a concept.
Space is an easy theme to attach to electronic music, even easier to NSA Trusted Networks. Rather than a journey into the heavens, this 12” is a return to fundamentals. Forgotten machines from the 90s sculpted this sound, vintage synths being the tools employed to shape shimmering soundscapes and vistas of distant worlds. Yet what is even more impressive is the fact that this unknown name has used those aged instruments to create a style that is absorbing, engaging and distinctly his own; no easy feat in this age of space shuttles and high speed internet.
NSA Trusted Networks is available on Lower Parts.
