Conjuring great memories of the 90s and 303 style acid raving, but it’s so much more than that, in that it fuses the fascinating polyrhythms artists like Devine have worked so hard to evolve over the last 20+ years with those timeless sounds, further exploring the seemingly limitless extents of the electronic music continuum.
Exploring the seemingly limitless extents of the electronic music continuum
Fans of previous Richard Devine releases are in for a bit of a surprise with this one. Normally known for his elaborate audio sculptures and sonic environments—but also for intense and brilliant live modular shows—Mr. Devine brings us what is maybe his first Live EP.
Those who have heard his live modular sets before will have some idea of what to be prepared for, but, in an interesting turn, Richard decided to chart a course into deep retro acid territory with this set. Recorded in one take and separated later into different tracks for distribution on vinyl, the songs meander, often starting firmly grounded in skittering, furious masses of percussion, which slowly dissolves and morphs into new rhythms, often becoming a Hardfloor-esque acid riff, and sometimes peaking explosively with epic snare rushes and builds.
A very fine balance between throbbing dancefloor acid and cerebral IDM is established here and maintained throughout. The “tracks” themselves stretch out to 10 or 15 minutes and end at a place very far from whence they began, stylistically. One difference, Devine states, is that when approaching this as a live performance, he looked at a minimal, fixed set of very portable gear, versus the usual nearly unlimited potential of his full home studios. Connecting the gear in inventive, sometimes unprecedented configurations allowed him to create the pseudo-chaotic rhythms fans are familiar with in an environment that allowed him hands-on control of a finite set of elements he was able to directly interface with for a true, real-time, “performance.”
Recorded in one take and separated later into different tracks for distribution on vinyl, the songs meander, often starting firmly grounded in skittering, furious masses of percussion, which slowly dissolves and morphs into new rhythms.
The title itself, SYSTIK refers to the hardware used to create the cascading sheets of rhythm heard throughout the piece. But, Devine also states, at the same time, he very much wanted to revisit some of his roots in hard techno and acid music, and this is for me the first time I have heard the genres fused together in such a way.
It really works, to me—conjuring great memories of the 90s and 303 style acid raving, but it’s so much more than that, in that it fuses the fascinating polyrhythms artists like Devine have worked so hard to evolve over the last 20+ years with those timeless sounds, further exploring the seemingly limitless extents of the electronic music continuum.
SYSTIK is available on BL_K Noise November 11, 2020. [Bandcamp]
