23 might appear to glide into experimental terrain with ease, however, it’s the fine-tuned ability of the artists’ sonic signature that stands the test of time. The dreamlike states that evolve, erode and escape are all a part of this enjoyably strange electronic puzzle.
An enjoyable and strange electronic puzzle
USRNM (pronounced Username) is the alias of sound sculpture Stuart Bowditch and after a handful of releases with Hottwerk, Rednetic, Warehouse Decay and Photogram, he steps up with Courier Sound (his own label shared with Nick Dawson) to unleash 23 multidirectional electronic nuggets.
All tracks excluding five pieces are around the 15 second to 1 minute mark—and even with such short runtimes to craft disjointed sound bubbles, he manages to unearth a plethora of ideas from bells, ambient strands, field recordings, soundtrack fissures, darkened bass, hazy melodics and modular blips’n beeps with static fizz-fuzz and microscopic rhythms delivered in 23 pieces. It’s when USRNM expands into celestial electronic burrows that his craft really widens. Take “Chubby Neon” as a prime example—minuscule ambient spheres drift in the background as surreal voices float somewhere in the ether. Then you have tracks like “Let’s Never Speak of It Again” where downtempo clicks’n cuts are displaced by subtle chimes—an organic stream of subconsciousness that simply does hold back. There are also darker electronic tropes that straddle post-industrial lines as “Dwindling Congregation” alludes to, only to be sliced and diced into a dub-infested concoction. Then you have the glitchy tentacles and moody echoes of “Substance Of Yous” that rattles the brain with its dub-laden and textured clicks.
23 might appear to glide into experimental terrain with ease, however, it’s the fine-tuned ability of the artists’ sonic signature that stands the test of time. The dreamlike states that evolve, erode and escape are all a part of this enjoyable and strange electronic puzzle.
23 is available on Courier Sound December 23, 2020. [Bandcamp]
