dormnt
pointfive
self-released
dormnt is the project of Vancouver producer Anthony McGillivray, who also operated in a glitchier, if no less atmospheric style as Urusai in the mid to late 2000s. The thread tying together McGillivray’s releases has always been an emotional one, with the use of subtle electronic movements that flow into one another, sometimes punctuated by percussion and, sometimes in washes of pure ambience. The latter approach is exmplified by “Ephemeral”, the opener of new EP pointfive; while there’s a pulsing rhythm that courses through the track, it rarely rises above the surface of the vast, melancholic pads, held down by their expanse and weight. Even on the more beat-oriented cuts like “Eidetic”, it’s the slowly evolving textures that flow around the anxious kicks and cymbal-hits that dictate structure, only briefly falling into step with the percussion before melting back down into atmosphere. McGillivray’s strength as a producer is creating intensity in those alternately wistful and pensive moods; the noisy edge that creeps into the sweeping sounds of “Fraught” convey the feeling suggested by the title through inference, tension as a function of a vast and ungraspable unease. While dormnt’s music is by its nature amorphous, its impact is fully tangible.
Crystal Geometry
Riot Dogs
Bloc Noir
The range of techno, industrial, and metal influences Maxime Fabre is going to bring to any new Crystal Geometry release should be familiar to regular readers of this site or anyone who’s been keeping their head on a swivel since the fantastic breakthrough of 2020’s Senestre. New EP Riot Dogs is a bracing and tight reiteration of Crystal Geometry’s core strengths. A bit more down the classic techno pipe than anything we’ve heard from Fabre in a minute (and distinct from the wooziness of last LP From The Rave To The Grave), the four cuts here don’t sacrifice any of the dense, percussive gallop Fabre always brings while working some lighter touches into the corner of still-pummelling productions. “Kanellos” does a great job of augmenting classic liquid techno and trance programming with some softer guitar picking, while we get some of the gabber and metal chug in the the style of recentEP Antithèse kicking against ghostly programming on “Loukanikos”. Keeping those subtler dynamics in play while still absolutely assaulting the listener with dense brutality is one of the hallmarks of Fabre’s best work. and when you factor in the EP’s unifying theme of wild dogs’s propensity to join riots around the world (to play fast and loose with the treble clef mnemonic, every good boy bites cops) it’s impossible not to get caught up in the maelstrom of this EP.
