Recommended
JBX005 // Pita & Chra
Christina Nemec and Peter Rehberg have known each other for some time. As well as playing together in Blackest Ever Black outfit Shampoo Boy alongside Christian Schachinger, Nemec has seen releases on Rehberg's Editions Mego imprint. Their latest collaboration together as 'Chra & Pita', comes in the form of a 7" single for the Trost Jukebox Series.
I have found Nemec's work somewhat difficult to pin down previously. Her 2009 LP Derive for example has the scattergun structure of a hip-hop mixtape, tracks like 'Säkenoivästä' evoking early Kyoka releases with their playful use of vocals and buoyant hooks. Her most recent LP on the other hand, Empty Airport, is more akin to the work of Pan Sonic, or something you might find on Ukrainian label Kvitnu.
Rehberg's back-log is perhaps slightly easier to gain hold of. His 1995 EP with General Magic is comprised of scratchy electronica and funk-tinged glitch, while later releases resemble the styles you might find on Mille Plateaux. Most recently he released Get In, an Editions Mego LP which aligns these different approaches alongside a healthy dose of shoegaze ambient.
On this release, Nemec and Rehberg evoke the computerized aesthetic of someone like Gábor Lázár, combining intense, gothic atmospheres with distant synthetic melodies. A-side 'Cynthia' places stuttered bleeps alongside squealing modulations and slow rises of static, tasteful phone-line abstractions disorientating the listener even further in the track's latter half. 'Not My People' on the other hand deploys grumbling radiophonic swells of low-end, time-stretched sci-fi stings adding a sense of creeping discomfort.
The duo have carved out a niche for themselves which makes an impressive start for their debut collaboration (in this form at least), combining Nemec's mastery of volcanic noise and drone textures, with Rehberg's penchant for digitized oddities.
- Published
- Nov 14, 2016
- Credits
- Words by Theo Darton-Moore