Here we get to enjoy Oberman Knocks tread through similar (past) terrain, albeit with a more personal sound space that is at once controlled and fully fueled start to end. It’s almost as if each track was given just enough energy to reshape, break down, and reconstruct along the way. Fans of early Einoma, Phoenecia, and Richard Devine should take notice.
Remhex Coyles is a standalone 5-track extended player following up from Oberman Knocks’ Trilate Shift 2018 album also on Andrea Parker’s experimental electronic imprint Aperture. Here we get to enjoy Oberman Knocks tread through similar (past) terrain, albeit with a more personal sound space that is at once controlled and fully fueled start to end. It’s almost as if each track was given just enough energy to reshape, break down, and reconstruct along the way.
Take the slithering modular audio collage of “Quimteck Outorto” and its shuffling beats and bass that almost breathes to life where classic Einoma soundscapes run in parallel. Electro merged with industrial shards are extracted on “Vencer Quad Cutt,” a blistering electronic slab filled to the brim with skittering glitch effects to round it all off. And this is perhaps what Oberman Knocks does so well—the ever-evolving and transforming rhythms he creates slide across the landscape via disjointed yet smoothed analog machinery. That’s not to say Remhex Coyles is devoid of subtle melodic troves. The pleasantly drifting “Egroscatchia” bends and twists around an even-tempered ambient synthesized drone as sporadic bits and bytes flicker about—one can also experience buried vocal samples decomposing in its final minutes. There’s a darkness and eerie mood that transpires on “Skomlix,” a mind-bending abstract electronic foray into harsh mechanics while a vocal scream is peppered throughout its broken beats. And finally, Oberman Knocks hails Phoenecia on the entangled beauty of “Triangulated Sorminn Fifth,” an electroacoustic downtempo slice of life that marries dub-laden grooves with undulating low-end.
In all, Rehmhex Coyles is sonic perfection—its playful approach and focused experimental underpinning is a definite highlight EP for 2019.
Remhex Coyles is available on Aperture.
