Nyxx
Salt EP
SHVDOW Records
NYC artist Nyxx’s take on the contentious industrial pop sound has proven versatile and mutable, as evidenced by the material on the recent salt EP. Made up of the title track and three collabs, two with the IDM-touched industrial songsmith genCAB and one with queer darkwaver Danny Blu, there’s a surprising amount of variety, while remaining true to Nyxx’s arch musical persona. Where “salt” itself captures a slinky, seething grind that comes complete with bent and chords and distorted growls, “Body Count” goes uptempo with Nyxx and Blu trading off bitchy one liners and a shouted hook behind a solid bit of bouncy electro. Even the genCAB team-ups are distinct from one another in their execution, with “Crown” hitting a mood between seething and melancholy, turning up the drama for its big chorus and tweaky breakdown, “Gun” (probably the project’s best track to date) is a rock solid slice of clubbed up electropop, thick with richly detailed production and tremendously catchy and charismatically delivered vocal hook. Between its variety and its balance of smooth and rough-edged electronics salt packs plenty into its tight 14 minute run-time.
Apocryphos
Ultimum Saeculum
Cryo Chamber
The latest in a slew of releases (solo and collaborative) which Robert Kozletsky has released as Apocryphos over the past decade since the dissolution of Psychomanteum, Ultimum Saeculum is a deep and subtle reminder of the sort of focused control and power Kozletsky holds in his drone-heavy style of dark ambient. Framed by the concept of the last 24 hours on earth, the record uses a host of field recordings and pedals to build warm and tremoring rises and falls. As with preceding Apocryphos work, Ultimum Saeculum is likely best suited for those already initiated into dark ambient, and those who have a taste for the style will be drawn in both by the uncompromising purity of Kozletsky’s take on it, as well as his talents in detailing and executing it, and it’s really in the latter that his latest excels. By the time choral-like harmonics emerge on “1200 (Astrophe)”, the listener’s already so attuned to the subtle textures which thread through the record that the blooming warmth of the piece’s chords shimmers all the more in contrast with the wind recordings in which it’s buffeted. From the undertow-like timbre of his core drones to the light dusting of just enough adornment, Ultimum Saeculum gets the details and the craft of dark ambient right.
It’s really nice to hear from NYXX, even if rarely and in small doses. Whatever industrial pop might stand for under the current phase of the moon – and often in relation to whatever one D. Graves might be currently doing (if you like your social media inputs), she gets across some very nice hooks. ‘Crown’ is really effective, as was ‘Voodoo’ with Graves back in the day.