Taphonomy // Ontal

As if plucked straight from a nightclub scene in a Gaspar Noe film, ‘Taphonomy’ is a three minute battering of incessant kick drums and gut wrenching distortion. Being devoid of any melodic devices, the track instead creates its tension builds and releases through gradually developing reverbs, harrowing atmosphere pads and rasping bitcrush-crumpled samples. It only seems right that Taphonomy feature a variety of kick drum samples, considering its pounding four four beat. Switching between different samples provides an unlikely variant, allowing the track to retain its relentless atmosphere for the duration.

With a selection of similarly themed, raw techno stompers available from Ontal’s soundcloud, they have recently been picked up on by Rob Booth, owner of the massively influential ‘Electronic Explorations’. ‘Penetration’ - another industrial strength track being featured in the most recent ‘EE’ podcast.

Birthed a mere three months ago, Ontal is comprised of Serbian duo ‘Boris Noiz’ & ‘Dekode’. Despite the project’s young age, Ontal are already in the process of negotiating a release & have an upcoming show at ‘Failed Rituals’ in Berlin on the 10th of March. The pair cite a wealth of sources that influence their music hardly surprisingly; sci-fi films, industrial music, war, disease and apocalypse all rub off on the Ontal sound. With production, originality and atmosphere already under their belts, we can expect nothing less than great things from this pair in the future.

• Published
• Jan 23, 2012

• Credits
• Words by Theo Darton-Moore