Lahorka
Demo
self-released
Oakland/Puerto Rico synthpunk duo Lahorka certainly don’t skimp on the punk in their 5-track 2025 demo, the liner notes of which indicate that all songs were recorded live. That matches up to the rough and ready sound of the songs, which jump between mid-tempo stompers, gabber speed rave-ups and trudging analogue industrial, keeping the arrangements lean and the vocals shouted. “Silencio + Suicidio” is a hyper-speed bit of manic electro, all hissing snares and rapidly rising and ascending 16th note sequences of beeps, a contrast to “Movimientos” which uses a slowed down version of the sound to more sinister effect thanks to its echoing vox and fuzzy synth bass. There’s certainly a sense of arch attitude in the delivery of “Diversión”, where the warbling synths match up to the sarcastically intoned verses, punctuated with yelps and glitches to the kick-snare drum patterns. The band’s wildest moment comes from “Desorden”, where an 18-wheeler’s worth of hardcore kicks eventually build to a buzzing crescendo, burning out seconds before it feels like the track is about to shake itself to pieces. If this is truly a record of what the band is like live, they’ll be one you’ll want to make a point of seeing.
Anatoly Grinberg and Mark Spybey
crop-dusting
Ant-Zen
It’d be tempting to say that Mark Spybey has too many irons in the fire given the plethora of collaborations he’s involved with, not to mention mainline Dead Voices On Air material both new and archival, were it not for how handily the veteran experimentalist has been able to maintain the care and quality associated with his work both classic and recent. His latest record with frequent collaborator Anatoly Grinberg touches upon a range of the ambient moods and styles one associates with their preceding works, with an added focus on topography and landscape. The tropical jungle ambiance of “them-again” slowly and beautifully shifts into uplifting, near trance-like pads as the sun filters through canopies of trees, while the otherworldly, wildly pitched vocals (?) which wind through “echoes-sri” feel like a call to prayer on Mars. Dreamy and soupy yet earthy and grounded, these are the sort of moves that seem from the outside to come easily to Grinberg and Spybey yet also reflect mastery of the details of sound design.
