Nick Viola
Soft Brutalism
Valley Electroniks
Soft Brutalism is an apt title for the last EP of industrialized techno from Los Angeles’ Nick Viola. Like much of his work as a producer, the sound is informed by the cacophony of rhythmic noise, but shaped into intriguing an hypnotic shapes through subtle variation. The title track sets the tone quickly, pounding out distorted kicks and percussion sounds, quickly introducing a delayed synthline whose subtle modulation and filter moves cause it to snake and slide between each massive drum hit. “Atrial” varies the approach by omitting almost all melodic aspects of the track, putting textured synths deep into the background of the track behind it’s kick and cymbals, the occasional vocal sample adding to the song’s organic cadence, which evokes breathing at panic attack pace. “Debiasing” fascinates by keeping its rumbling drums deep down in the mix, almost subconscious in comparison to the clacky percussion and sweeps of degraded noise and static that float through the mix. While the remixes from Spheric and FTSM take distinctly different tacks, there’s still a sense of Viola’s own astute compositional approach present, one that finds small moments and soft touches even amongst the most caustic surroundings.
Plague Clock
Acid Rain
self-released
The latest in a series of EPs from California producer Plague Clock, Acid Rain, crams an idiosyncratic and unassuming mix of noise, synthpunk, and unreconstructed industrial into a fifteen minute run time. The album title’s well chosen, as you’re getting bright squalls of feedback and pinched, wormy programming which eschew subtlety or compositional ambiance for the sake of direct, squelchy excess collapsing on top of itself. Loops and grooves falling in and out of phase with one another are the driving force here, with the emergent rhythms of “Acid Homunculus” and “Cursed Space Elevator” suggesting an odd middle ground between Skullflower and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Elsewhere, the bright spacetrucking of “Void Miasma” and techno blizzard of “Don’t Breathe This” point to a host of electronic influences well outside of the dark “scene” histories which often accompany any industrial released after the mid 80s. Approachable and direct, there’s a lot of texture here for your time.
