Recommended
Thirteen Losses // Marreck
Label: Bomb Shop
Format: Digital
Release Date: 16/09/2014
Filling time doesn’t appear to be a problem for Stockton based Michael Hann. Alongside running his own label, Reject & Fade, he also finds to time to release under two different production alias’; Rejections and Marreck. Whilst the two projects have their own distinct sonic aims, closer inspection reveals further sub-categories. His recent ‘Mechanism’ release as Marreck on Tesla Tapes hosted a mixture of corrosive, noise-laden techno and spacious drone and ambient, perhaps in line with the work of labels like Stroboscopic Artefacts or Modal Analysis.
His latest EP on the other hand, the Bomb Shop hosted ‘Thirteen Losses’ has noticeably different aims in mind. Shunning the niceties, the release sounds like the tattered remains of an old 90s rave tape; phasers and muffled laser samples cutting through a thick fog of distortion and static.
'Beautiful K' provides an explosive opener, mangled synths and pounding 4/4 kicks hammering through the mist. Hann's approach holds no punches - the most aggressive traits of rave music thrust together in a twisted homage. Take 'Black Water' for example - kick drums pound violently beneath a swelling mass of screeching high-end, wildly oscillating through various delays and filters. Hann's use of filtering in general is one of the things which makes the release so captivating - there is a sense that these tracks could have been recorded in one take as subtle textural shifts and developments occur constantly.
A constantly rising Shepard tone runs through the length of ‘Chateau X’ for instance, its dense, tension fraught sound palette leaving the listener little time to gather bearings. ‘False Martyr’ builds to a similarly frenzied climax, chugging low-end joined slowly by rasping, alien groans.
Stream ‘Thirteen Losses’ in full via The Quietus.
- Published
- Sep 20, 2014
- Credits
- Words by Theo Darton-Moore