Known for his colder sounds and slicing electro, Superior Life Forms sees Umwelt’s sounds take on, and take over, new forms. Industrial cruelty and techno abrasiveness corrupt these tracks, grinding machinery growls and bleeds with a palpable malice. Beneath the ashen beauty of Aeropalmics’ stunning sleeve work lurks an acrid audio animal that shows little mercy.
It’s quite astonishing to think that Umwelt has been releasing for more than twenty years. Founding a glut of labels, like Fundata, New Flesh and Rave or Die, the Frenchman has been a pioneering light of machine music. Now he is enjoying much wider success with a spread of live shows worldwide and more and more imprints realizing his uniquely sheer style. One of those imprints is Midnight Shift with the Singapore platform drafting in this veteran for the label’s first foray into LPs.
The speaker splitting ferocity of the title piece introduces the album. Raw and distorted, Umwelt sends everything into the red as an aggressive audio line is immediately draw. “Computer Controlled” is just a belligerent. Hiss and static drown claps and toms in this juddering behemoth. An industrial undertone permeates the piece and the entire record, jarring sounds that will set teeth rattling in jaw bones. A respite comes in the eerie echo and mournful delay of “Latent Existence” before the listener is pinned to the wall by pounding kicks and the razor-like keys of “Fragment.” Percussion saws into bone in this violently attack. “Shadow Entity” is classic Umwelt. Rising tension is pierced with rusted beats as an electro creature is dipped in a syrup of acid. The finale is the brutalized “The Windfall.” Ticking over like a clapped out engine, the track is pure rhythmic industrialism. Coarse and mechanical to end,
Known for his colder sounds and slicing electro, Superior Life Forms sees Umwelt’s sounds take on, and take over, new forms. Industrial cruelty and techno abrasiveness corrupt these tracks, grinding machinery growls and bleeds with a palpable malice. Beneath the ashen beauty of Aeropalmics’ stunning sleeve work lurks an acrid audio animal that shows little mercy.
Superior Life Forms is available on Midnight Shift.
