Permanent Shadows
Anx EP
self-released
Austin Texas’ Permanent Shadows present an appealingly rough-edged vision of electro-industrial on Anx, their latest self-released EP. Where the title tracks kicks off with blocky pads and rapid drum fills, the Ogre-esque vocals and manic pacing end up recalling the earliest Hocico. Alternately the even more speedy “Conniption” splits the difference between hardcore punk’s abandon and the spartan utility of early electro-industrial, all machine-gun kick-snare patterns synths that derezz into pure noise in the mix. This isn’t all attitude by any means; the tightest and most immedidate track is “Eight”, a direct and much-needed condemnation of ICE operatives, and the system that incentivizes their inhumanity towards their community, all set to a stomping rhythm track that emphasizes its righteous anger and contempt. While the production of the EP remains tough and ready across its 4 originals, the Type-S remixes of “Anx” and of “Eight” are particularly crunchy and mean; slowed down and rendered more opaque through some changes in the mix, they have the woozy feel of the dank and gnarly mutant weirdness of classic dark electro. Excoriating and vicious, it brings some much needed anger to bear at a time when the feeling is in no shortly supply but strangely absent from much of the industrial genre.
Alphaxone
Subsynthetic Pulseforms
Cryo Chamber
Long-running Iranian dark ambient project Alphaxone’s releases have gradually taken on a spacier cast over the last half decade, with derelict ships and orbital ambience holding Mehdi Saleh’s LPs together. New LP Subsynthetic Pulseforms continues that trend on the surface, but the more one digs into the record the less that setting ends up being the focus. Instead, a compositional style which goes beyond the usual minimalism of dark ambient and enters the realm of pure drone and sound design is pressed into service, with comparatively brief pieces being easy to juxtapose against their neighbours in terms of spatial origin and mood. The comparatively light, almost wind-chime like drift of “Disappear” is swiftly offset by the sustained bassy undertow of “Disappear”, and even when it comes to pure drone it’s easy enough to clock the difference between the woody bass timbre of “Inversion” and the metallic resonance of “Voidness”. The semi-infamous Environments records earned their rep by prompting folks used to throwing on laid back smooth jazz or easy listening records to instead zone out to sustained field recordings of a certain landscape and all of the connotations that came with it. The subtle moods and timbres each of the pieces Saleh offers here accomplishes a similar effect – forget about commonplace understandings of progression or tonality and instead be prepared to be pulled between a slew of deeply embedded static positions.
