Sirio Grimaldi's stock in the techno scene is clearly on the rise with impressive outings in the last couple of years on Monolith, Several Reasons & Mechanical Thoughts. Agony, the first release on the new Berlin-based label Liber Null sees Sirio in a more experimental guise, and, as the title would suggest, explores the darker side of this human journey of ours.

    In ACT I, you're stirred by layers of industrial noises before an earth-shattering beat punches up through a deep echoing sub bass and a piercing alarm then ensures you're fully awake; it's one hell of a sound collage, where the sense of loneliness and unease grows exponentially. ACT II - ghostly, incoherent whispers and scratchy electronic noises join the heavy, but lonely half-step beat, the imposed feeling now is one of dread - the tension builds and builds, the voices become more prominent but still indecipherable. ACT III, and more voices scrawl the track, morbid moaning and groaning disorientates through the rhythmic noise... there's someone or something out there, watching you. ACT IV - whatever's out there is on the move: harsh computer noise, trip over a throbbing beat, sounding like a marching army of the undead; the anxiety is now spilling over into a blind panic, don't look back, the pursuit is on. Finally, Mace. offers a remix of ACT IV, serving up an electro beast in only the way he can, abstracting the drums and slipping in a perfectly coherent vocal sample, as the track shatters and reverberates to its conclusion.

    It may be a little premature to call Grimaldi a genius, but this record has a touch here, the tracks are short but definitely not sweet (that's no bad thing), and yes, you'll be back tomorrow for another listen. He seems to have created a sonic instruction manual for how to deal with it all - the darkness, the despair, the fear, the anxiety, the paranoia; feel it, acknowledge it, but be quick to let it go, or it will eat you alive.

Release Type: EP

Release Date: 20 February 2017

Release Format: Digital • Cassette

Record Label • Catalog: Liber Null Berlin • LNMC01

Purchase Links: Bandcamp • Juno • Readymade