Access to Arasaka - void();

Title: void();
Artist: Access to Arasaka
Genre: Electronic
Release Date: 14th September 2010
Label: Tympanik Audio

Album Review

Frankly spoken, I wouldn’t have expected a new ACCESS TO ARASAKA album so soon after ‘Oppidan’, especially given the complexity of the material. Now it’s here anyway and bears the title ‘void();’, which is a Java instruction if I’m not entirely wrong here. In fact, this is only the tip of the iceberg of an album that only uses instructions as track titles. Not without reason of course as it is inspired as the label puts it “by the history and future of system hacking” An odyssey through data channels and mysterious synthetic emotions it is, all initiated by entering ‘*strtok()’ and sending data packets into virtual space where they’re taking on the shape of sonic fractals that with each and every turn reveal a new face. The labyrinthine fabric of this is simply stunning. You come to think on ‘kill_recorder=$c1’ you found a way to grasp everything; then another way opens, another corner unveils and you’re finding yourself right back where you started. The emphasis on nearly unrestrained rhythmic mutations in many of the early tracks on ‘void();’ could scare away listeners that loved ‘Oppidan’ for its cinematic atmospheres. But those are still there, they just don’t jump in your face right away.

Sometimes you have to literally work through to them but the reward will be nothing but pure synthetic beauty cast into washing textures. On other occasions as on ‘&sin’ and even more ‘term/echo’, they’re the prevailing, the key element. There we have ambient in its purest form, converging icy layers and crystal atmospheres to a transcendent emotional current. Another time on ‘optlist:’the element of tension is utilized and its build cunningly plays with the dynamics of loudness and intermissions to keep it up. Subtlety is the credo of ‘[overwrite_ctr]’. Despite their obvious complexity, the rhythms never blow up in your face and also the melodic branch never gains the upper hand. Progressing forward on the album’s tracklist it strikes you the ambient elements nonetheless have come to the fore, and more than before form a harmonic unity with the hooked up arrays full of edges. One highlight this connection produces is undoubtedly the track ‘’. Here, the gate to a whole new sonic dimension is opened. Angelic chorales go hand in hand with an irregular time signature on the stuttering rhythms or subside for a while without losing their depth. It’s like a give and take on this one.

Even if you couldn’t label ‘Oppidan’ an easy listening experience at all, ‘void();’ goes one better in terms of rhythmic and melodic intricacy and thickness. As mentioned before I’m not sure if the focus on the former won’t end up in ACCES TO ARASAKA losing some fans, as it is far harder getting used to that kind of complexity than to the melodic one I think. That doesn’t change the fact I had a masterpiece of an album up for review here and I’m more then curious now where the road will take the project next.


Tracklist

01. *strtok() - 2:30
02. kill_recorder=$c1 - 4:38
03. array[0..8191] - 3:28
04. setvector - 3:50
05. config.syn_seq - 2:54
06. &sin - 1:35
07. term/echo - 2:42
08. optlist: - 1:49
09. syslog_ident - 4:42
10. [overwrite_ctr] - 2:37
11. inc(tumbler) - 3:44
12. n->m_pkthdr.len - 3:54
13. switch(pcap_datalink) - 4:22
14. bpf_u_int32 - 3:12
15. - 4:38
16. sys.argv[1:] - 4:40


Website

http://www.accesstoarasaka.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/accesstoarasaka


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 9
Sound: 10
Extras: -
Total: 9.5 / 10


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