(06.18.06) Finally, here comes something to feed my needs of digital extremism. Since that lazy fella Xanopticon is taking ages to put together another album (move on, Ryan!) and Kaebin Yield left the musical scene (oh, what a loss), at least I can rely on Undacova who delivers a collection of new and old tracks that redefine the word heavy.
After a brief intro, first served are four of the six tracks featured on the Induction EP: if you have no idea of how Undacova sounds like, I’ll take “Suppressed” as an example: Imagine Somatic Responses mangled and speeded up to create a teeth-grinding industrial monster, ultra processed and with thousands of razor sharp beats packed together. Scary, huh? Indeed, this is the perfect music if you like Richard Devine but you think he should stick to the smashing stuff he performs live, or maybe you think Venetian Snares is a genius but he’s gone too melodic.
Intrusion is the rebellion of the machines lead by the man Jan Robbe, and this comes really clear after a remix of a Kaebin Yield track and the already much appreciated “Sciarex” that appeared on Carbon compilation on Mirex. The second half of this album, that starts with the title track, is a nightmare of squeezed CPU’s and paroxysmal editing: frequencies at both ends of the aural spectrum are boosted to the maximum, thunderous bass pulses struggle against piercing nano-bleeps. After the percussive “Clutter,” Undacova performs the definitive mash-up with “Fernando” (go figure…), which starts with videogame beats and vocals so pitched up they could attract a swarm of bats, before evolving into a harsh head-bashing storm of straight beats and silicon blades. The heaviness with a capital H comes with “Daarom,” a four to the floor demon so fast and aggressive that Converter sounds like Enya compared to this. If it wasn’t enough, there are also two killer remixes, first comes Neurocore that straightens “Intrusion” and then Imminent puts his hands on “Daarom,” retaining the original brutality but focusing all the power on a distorted kick drum.
Records like this show which limits can be reached with technology applied to music, and at the same time they’re so filled with adrenaline that they act like a balm on your nerves.
Intrusion is out now on Dyslexic Response / Isolate.
