Centrifugal Force Machine
Object Permanence
X-IMG
Object Permanence is the debut from DJ Court Knight’s Centrifugal Force Machine project, and deals in a vocally driven form of techno-body music. As with a lot of the acts on X-IMG, the 7 tracks on the record are club-ready in terms of tempo, but it’s Knight’s voice that sets them apart in the often instrumental style. A song like “Passing Torment” certainly has the vocal samples, rubbery bass and layers of metallic percussion that you might expect, but its Knight’s processed, sharp-tongued delivery that gives it extra juice, an added touch of acidic texture that makes the whole feel more song-like. In spots that approach hearkens back to classic dark electro, such as on “Despise Inside” where a more minimal arrangement of clacky electronic percussion and FM bass slowly builds to a full gallop, accompanied by grunts, hisses, and hard-bitten syllables. That commitment to hitting hard is such that the release comes close to the border of rhythmic noise in spots; while not drenched in distortion, you can’t deny that “Open/Release” has some of the latter genre’s runaway bulldozer momentum, crashing through barriers on a tightly quantized bassline and thudding kicks until it’s abrupt conclusion. As a debut its a clear statement of intent: move or get run over.

SŌON - Actions Made Audible
SО̄ON
Actions Made Audible
Electronic Sound
Depending on when it occurred, a collab between Jack Dangers and Adi Newton could end up taking on just about any permutation of electronic experimentation given both men’s pedigrees, but emerging now the second release from the SО̄ON project finds both producers in analog psychedelia. Those who’ve tracked Newton’s gradual shift away from the angular deconstruction of classic Clock DVA material and into warmer ambient climes on his own solo releases will be on familiar ground as tremoring tones languidly roll over drones, almost like harmonious windchimes while Alan Watts rhapsodizes on wholeness and separation. While nowhere near as brutally noisy as Dangers’ recent work with Merzbow, he sounds at home in the pure trippiness of Actions Made Audible; the cosmic pings kicking about the soupy mix of “Pharmacopei Of Consciousness” could be traced back to Dangers’ work with dub, but could also just as easily be the result of a shared interest in the earliest of electronic film scoring and mid-century pure experimentation with theremins and other pieces of gear upon their creation. By the time the Eno-cum-Neu! gossamer pulse of closer “Seriatim” heads up towards the astral, there’s been something comforting in hearing these two vets of abrasive noise opt for a more sanguine head-trip.