From needle drop, Torrent takes no prisoners. Dark guttural sounds make up this mini-LP, burnt rusted beats scissoring mutated melodies. These are fierce fiery works of body jerking techno, a collection to complement any blackened club or dungeon setting.
After four releases in two years, Schrödinger’s Box fell silent. A burst of energy with tracks from Andreas Gehm, Antoni Maiovvi (featured here and Cute Heels was followed by a vinyl void. Yet, as we all know, a lack of music does not mean inactivity. Behind the scenes the Glasgow imprint has been beavering away, sourcing new talent, unearthing lost music and digging, digging, digging. A new name has been unearthed for one of four new 12”s from Schrödinger’s Box, Torrent.
There’s not much known about Torrent as a producer. What can be said is based on their music, a carbuncled and gnarled style which was first premiered on Contort Yourself. What immediately strikes the eye, rather than the ear with this full debut, is the grisly inner artwork; teeth bore and angular limbs with no details of artist nor tracklists. The music reflects the visuals. A bristled beat introduces the opener, cracked samples stuttering and stumbling their way along this distortion soaked trail. Those bristles turn into full piercing points as “The Handler Part I” takes a vice-like hold. Keys boil and roll against slashing percussion in this EBM stained sledgehammer. A mellowness descends, or comparative mellowness, with “Part II” and Part III,” stretched strings and bitter basslines swirling with vocals resurfacing in “Part III.” There is no relenting, no relief, with this eight-tracker, the flip immediately squaring up for a fight with bruising kicks and biting snares. Torrent dips into industrial resonance for “Duel” with machinery and vocal chords ground under an almighty pressure. “XXXX-1” continues the mechanised moods of “Duel,” strings snaking their way around the clank of metal and shriek of steel. “XXXX-2” is the nightmarish version of its sibling, beats battering burbling notes as lost voices churn and cut.
From needle drop, Torrent takes no prisoners. Dark guttural sounds make up this mini-LP, burnt rusted beats scissoring mutated melodies. These are fierce fiery works of body jerking techno, a collection to complement any blackened club or dungeon setting.
++^.x^-_-___ is available on Schrödinger’s Box.
