Tracing Structures is Terminal 11’s most complete work, it simply depends if you’re bothered enough to scratch beyond his madcap surface and dive in.
There weren’t many artists back in 2004 making flurries of machine gun splattering sounds on top of drum beats and rhythmic breaks. I first came across Terminal 11 on an Invasion From XXX Dimension compilation, released by the infamous Mutant Sniper label, and it stood out as being one of the best productions on their roster. For all of Terminal 11’s—name Michael Castaneda—crammed and hectic production, the American never creates a sound ‘black and white.’ His sound is never mad and over the top for the sake of it—there’s structure, melancholy, moments of progression and craft to be found. I’m even sure Seth Troxler would agree, Terminal 11’s brand of breakcore doesn’t fit into his idea of ‘sonic rape.’ There is a huge amount care gone into Tracing Structures and Castaneda’s previous work.
Tracing Structures is a record split in two halves and it goes to highlight the subtlety behind Terminal 11’s work. He’s combining the nuanced touches of minimalism alongside his complex IDM sound. There’s a sense of maturity about this record—fascinating when we think of Castaneda’s madcap past. His previous work is richly layered and maddening, putting your brain into overdrive or completely wrecking it. Terminal 11’s breakcore would often explode into life with a huge splutter of percussive noise alongside the mania of melodic sounds panned across the stereo field.
Fast forward to 2015 and Tracing Structures is of the same ilk, more ‘danceable’ and less off the wall. It literally traces a more conventional sound. This doesn’t mean Terminal 11 is any the more accessible. He’s still a breakcore producer, who’s maddening manipulation of sound is difficult to get into but one to marvel at. This up to date outing is his most concentrated and focused effort.
There’s shades of progressive work throughout opening tracks “Tracing Structures,” and “Metacognition,” which are almost meditative and layered pieces, with a solid percussive element keeping you in time throughout. “Reconfiguration” has a thumpingly jarring intro, reversed loops play, the audio pumping in and out of volume quickly as a melody whizzes across the speakers—there’s a moment that this track gets into a ravey mood, toying with time. Shades of Vladislav Delay’s “Hitto” are at work here.
The latter half of the record is slightly less interesting to this critic, likely because it follows very similar territory, where Terminal 11 has been time and time again. It’s perhaps that it falls flat, artistically, compared to the layered and more focused work which came before it—if you want to be snotty. Noise, jabber, industrial noises beeping and clicking at extremely fast rates happen throughout the last four tracks as the thud of a bass drone keeps everything in order. It’s easy to find fun in its chaos or on the other hand, it completely wrecks your brain.
These IDM, breakcore albums, by their sheer over the top style can be hard to distinguish, but each track on Tracing Structures is unmistakingly the work of Terminal 11. Tracing Structures is the American producers most complete work, it simply depends if you’re bothered enough to scratch beyond his madcap surface and dive in.
Tracing Structures is available on naboamusic / Cock Rock Disco.
