At the end of the day, this is quality curating and quality tracks. If you’re looking to expand your library of modular artists, are looking for inspiration yourself, and simply wonder what that part of the electronic world is like, you could do much worse than checking out this new record from DiN.
There’s a lot of clichés around modular music—random voltages for days on end, spending twenty minutes tweaking a filter while the same sequence repeats ad nauseam, ambient jams filmed next to succulents and crystals—the list goes on. While for some people, eurorack and modular in general have become second nature, for a good portion of the electronic audience the instrument remains somewhere between a quirky curiosity and an obscure relic. Thankfully there are labels like DiN putting out quality compilations of modular tracks, like their Tone Science Module series—and the third volume, released this month, does not disappoint.
While the record can seem a bit daunting at first—nine long-ish tracks (7 minutes in average) of sequences synths—the result is a very varied palette of sounds, schools and techniques. Every musician featured on this album brings something else to the table, and while nothing here is really groundbreaking, it is a great collection of concise jams. The improvisational nature of the instrument is key to the length of these pieces and to the way they unfold over time. The opening numbers are based on repeated sequences which slowly morph and evolve as new context is created around them—in that sense, the beautiful “The Divided Apparatus” by Caspar Hesselager is a good practice statement: here is the material, now let’s break it apart and reform it.
There is something for everyone here. While the first three tracks tread rather melodic territory, I was very taken by the middle two tracks, “En-Edge” and “AVA 2,” respectively by Radek Rudnicki and Eden Grey. Both are much more overtly abrasive, more at home in the contemporary gallery than on the dancefloor. Eden’s piece really feels like an early modular experiment, an eerie, deliciously analog clinical beat as the machine discovers itself a musician. Benge’s “Round #2” sits somewhere between, as the nimble synth arpeggio is underpinned by a laboring lo-fi beat.
For many people the centerpiece of the compilation will probably be “Berserker,” as Redshift’s contribution features a full Moog system. And yes, it rocks. Pure synth fun.
At the end of the day, this is quality curating and quality tracks. If you’re looking to expand your library of modular artists, are looking for inspiration yourself, and simply wonder what that part of the electronic world is like, you could do much worse than checking out this new record from DiN. In fact, previous installments feature artists like Hainbach and r beny of Youtube fame, and even the legend himself Todd Barton. Quality through and through.
Tone Science Module No.3 Cosines and Tangents is available on DiN.
