Much as the contemporary legends of multidisciplinary electronic music production Danny Kreutzfeldt and Ren Queenston, Estonian artist Oudeis has covered a vast majority of electronic genres, from atmospheric ambient and noise works to imaginative dubstep and techno, constantly experimenting, constantly bringing new ideas to the table and never going for generic, widely used samples and production techniques. Since the opening of his Bandcamp page in 2013, he has produced and published close to a hundred solo releases, including the ones published under his moniker Democide (98 in total at the moment of writing this review - unless we've missed something), and we don't mean cop-out, single tracks. No sir, we're talking fully produced EPs & LPs, and it's quite undeniable that a sea of quality material can be found amongst his tracks, which is something we can testify to, having observed them being played in sets of various genres. And yet, most of his material remains free, bearing a name-your-price tag where you would normally expect to see the a digit or two, which also pertains to his this hybrid-techno release titled Genesis.

    132 BPM opener Messiah kicks off the EP with moderately distorted, foreboding droning, which quickly gets pushed away by militaristic, syncopated kick drum patterns invading the spectrum together with densely running, noise-shaped bands, chiming 1/4 stabs accompanied by another layer of mid-range, background stab arrangements and fields or noise that gets high-passed up and down in the between the sections. Mixolydian Redeemer is one of the reasons why the term hybrid-techno was invoked earlier - while paced at 105 BPM, its ever-morphing, erratic kicks and soft noise bands that play the role of hats by times escalate to 5 hits a bar, which creates a sense of rapidity and rises the perceived tempo of the piece; deeply emotional, minor-key bassline instills a sense of desperation and melancholy while the percussion elements hammer it down deeper, throwing the listener in a blue mood and making him want to rock his head at the same time. Son Of Man is a showcase of rough, industrial force of straight-forward techno; it speeds up to 138 BPM and steps away from syncopation, engaging lambasting 4/4 kicks supported by stressful, oppressive low-range bass, half-bar shifted, slightly muffled 4/4 clicks, sweeping 4/4 hats and stinging 4/4 stabs, hits of intensifying sheets of sandy exhalations at 2/4 and obscure horns, running aside horizons of resonant electricity and ruthlessly screeching basslines. Withered Lamb Of God returns to the hybrid side of techno, elevating all the way to 150 BPM and bringing back the syncopation of the drum kicks; despite that, there is a strong 4/4 feel in so much that the kicks, while by times turning to 16/16, hit the hardest on each of the 4 bars, and in such behavior they are supported by open 4/4 hats; the rest of the penultimate number's dense spectrum is occupied by interestingly shaped, digital background noise and a plethora of uncountable, percussive minutiae, wrecking a satisfying havoc and barely conforming to patterns, all the while keeping a rhythmic structure in place - a structure that is both hard to grasp and easy to lose oneself into. Closing piece Regenerative State in a way expands on the ideas from the previous track, maintaining its tempo and sticking to the similarly chaotic arrays of scattered kicks and sets of cybernetic and also wooden bands running at insane speeds, with the mid-range bass oscillating casually against the sizzling background noise, as droning signals emerge in forms of stretched-out, vocalized soundfields; it definitely resembles experimental dubstep more than it resembles techno, but the way Oudeis arranges it, it's really nothing if not crafty IDM production.

Release Type: EP

Release Date: 21 January 2017

Release Format: Digital

Record Label • Catalog: None

Purchase Links: Bandcamp