Title: Carbon
Artist: Endif
Genre: Hard Electronics
Release Date: 29th July 2008
Label: Tympanik Audio
Album Review
The inception of ENDIF by Jason Hollis already dates back to 1991 when he had to work with rather poor equipment and results initially were sobering, but Jason constantly worked and experimented further and soon the efforts were fit, but the experimenting and learning always continued. With ‘Carbon’ ENDIF now presents his third album to date on the still rising label Tympanik Audio.
That this is a different one than others have is already shown in the first track of ‘Carbon’, named ‘Churl’ firmly kicking asses with its pummelled beats. Other than many of his genre colleagues Hollis doesn’t bore you with the same repetitive sequences over and over again. Look at ‘Churl’ the basic beat mostly stays as it is while he’s infusing noisy collages, additional scissoring rhythmical structures and layers, crushing every mass-compatible expectation right at the beginning. With ‘Ghost in the Machine’, he’s building up quite an intense atmosphere with the subtle, icy ambience layers running through the track in the background, sometimes more sensible than actually audible, while the front entirely belongs to the mechanic dance beats pulsing through the endless circuits of a machine, updating itself constantly.
‘Between Two Worlds’ is one of the straightest track on ‘Carbon’ mixing a distorted beat with noises that are as sharp they could probably cut a thick metal piece in two. Still it’s far off calling it a simple dance track, however this is what people will do: Dance their feet off to it. Now Jason has ‘The Answer’ for us, the only non-beat track on ‘Carbon’, more of a mash-up of disturbing noises, really hard to get into that piece for me. If this would come in a more melodic form you’d probably call it an ambient track. A fluctuating higher frequency tone and distant voices serve as the prelude of what will break loose seconds later, when ‘Naked, Bloody and Hungry’ gains momentum. Heavy distorted beats rain down on you, leaving the listeners no chance but to begin to move their tired bones to a non-linear rhythm, having to adjust their movements to the mutations the track is going through steadily.
When I read the title ‘Soft Power’ I was thinking of a less brutal approach. I should have known better by now. ENDIF’s music is not soft and never will be. Pretty straight forward just like ‘Between Two Worlds’. The beat is given lots of different sonic appearances throughout the track, always retaining its propulsive capabilities. See, that’s how you can make a track interesting. Close to its end the track is falling apart, leaving you with nothing but a noisy stream.
‘Carbon’ definitely is the most club-compatible Tympanik release to date but it has that little extra that makes it more versatile and less predictable. If that’s the future of hard electronics than it’ll be a bright future for the genre, I believe.
Tracklist
01. Churl – 4:53
02. Ghost In The Machine – 4:06
03. Peeling The Layers – 3:45
04. Between Two Worlds
05. Surgery Of The Soul
06. Last Tribe (Endif V. Replogen)
07. Reactionary – 3:33
08. The Answer – 2:38
09. Naked Bloody And Hungry – 4:36
10. Soft Power – 7:25
11. Police State – 4:04
12. Police State (Billy Club rmx by Pneumatic Detach)
Line-up
Jason Hollis – All Music, Production
Website
http://www.endif.org/ / http://www.myspace.com/endif
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 8
Extras: -
Total: 8
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