Title: Surge
Artist: Aphorism
Genre: Industrial / Electronica
Release Date: 23rd March 2009
Label: Tympanik Audio
Album Review
The biography of Chicago-based musician Josh Pyle already showed 15 years of experience in electronic music and involvements in various projects before his project APHORISM surfaced in 2005 and just a few years later this project should sign to one of the most prolific labels when it comes to promoting and releasing innovative electronic music and the name of this first APHORISM full-length is ‘Surge’.
The opener ‘Ulkine’ starts off with a distant string of noise that is stepping even more in the background as a slightly technoid rhythm appears with a plethora of complicated effects forcing it to seemingly turn backwards, making it take on unusual time signatures and then just letting it run on unencumbered while extraordinary sonic gadgetry soars over it and a melodic texture soothes the exhausted mind a bit coming up about two minutes into the song. ‘Covert/Convert’ is putting dirty, noisy layering atop a not so complex basic beat and lulls you in with a darkly shimmering pile of analogue melancholy before thy rhythms take over full control again. ‘Negative Two’ one of my favourites actually, puts on display kind of a quirk that is continuously driving it to destroy its inner structure with glitches, noises, and impossible sounds I’m not even able to find a proper name for and hovering above are those foggy, gloomy atmospheres always seeming like evaporating within the next few spells.
Beginning with an electronic buzzing and an amount of crash samples ‘Combat Fashion’ turns out as a rather straight matter with not too complicated rhythmic structures but it’s generating moods and atmospheres that are captivating and intriguing you in an instant even though they’re radiating a certain cold. The rhythmic complexity shown within the next track ‘Sounang’ is just amazing starting to border on the tribal after its first minute; even a little on the ritual if you ask me and then a break and the whole fabric becomes coarser, hard edged and less accessible. ‘Everything’ is the famous exception of the rule for it’s not utilizing any real melodies and is primarily focussing on fierce rhythmic mayhem. Here Pyle proves that he has even an affinity for the break core genre. ‘Two Sides of the Bullet’ could and still can be downloaded for free on the Tympanik Audio website so many of you might already know this tune whose special type of ambience always gives me the feeling of witnessing a slow motion scenery in my mind while thy rhythms contradict that impression by propelling forth un hindered in their 90s old-school styling.
I’d like to be honest with you. I was not entirely sure if the APHORISM sound would be up my alley in the first place but after the first spin in my player I had to change my mind completely for the APHORISM debut ‘Surge’ is a monolith of technically and sonically challenging Industrial/Electronica with carefully moulded atmospheres fans of the respective genres shouldn’t miss out on and it almost has become a tradition that some of Tympanik’s artists deliver some renditions of the original material which in this case are TOTAKEKE, ACCESS TO ARASAKA, and TAPAGE and everything is packed in a nice little digi-pack with an optically impressing artwork by an artist called Salt.
Tracklist
01. Ulkine - 4:59
02. What We See Now - 4:59
03. Covert/Convert - 4:23
04. Negative Two - 4:27
05. Combat Fashion - 5:05
06. Chrysantemums For Carrion - 6:56
07. Msect - 5:08
08. Sounang - 4:10
09. Reconsider - 3:08
10. Everything - 4:27
11. Two Sides Of The Bullet - 5:28
12. Raining Dirt - 4:39
13. Negative Two (Remixed by Totakeke) - 5:23
14. What We See Now (Remixed by Access To Arasaka) - 4:37
15. Msect (Dissected by Tapage) - 4:53
Line-up
Josh Pyle
Website
http://www.ap5m.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/aph0rism
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 9 / 10
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