From the shadows of Berlin, which we can attest are particularly dark and gloomy, straight on the Sirio Gry J's imprint Monolith Records unexpectedly lands Supersimmetria, perhaps known best for his techno-leaning IDM albums, approved and released by the never fading audio-industrial force that is Hands Productions. While he already has four albums to his name, Fluctus is the first EP of his to see the light of day, and it is backed by a smoking rework of one Scarlit Port, a Monolith's dark horse brought to our attention back in 2015, when his eyes-widening debut release made quite a substantial dent in the label's catalogue, making those that came across his EP wonder just who in the world this guy is (and why he named release with latin numerals). As you can make from this intro, the two we're presented with are not keen on messing around when it comes to production, which makes us want to take a closer look at Fluctus all the more.

    A creeping 128 BPM opener unravels slowly, letting the faint choral vocals and subtly rumbling low-settled bass do their welcoming job, before the short 4/4 clicks and rogue, shifty kicks step into action along with a stinging soundscape of what can only be described as buzzing of a disturbed digital hive; while not a dancefloor slasher, Diffraction is an effective mood-setter and the one that would fit well in a set of esoteric, leftfield, but nonetheless aggressive electronics. Rising just one BPM point up, Reflection makes use of sharp and steady 4/4 kicks with strong accent on every other hit, ethereal, depth-originating drones as well as numerous layers of clicky, panning, and sequentially bursting bars of assisting percussion, abruptly stopped every so often by a bleep, and slowly returning to their agenda, all running next to unyielding, ever-present, moderately distorted bass, corrosive, but just enough to crawl under the skin and stay there for the duration of the piece. While Refraction slows down 2 BPM points, its hammering kicks know little mercy, striking 4 beats a tact and by times doubling the last hit to keep the waveform varied; more of that abrasive, ear-titillating low bass, asynchronous metallic clonking, left channel-leaning thudding of toms, subtle hitting of panning bars, and oscillating ambient fields is what you should expect from this suspense-retaining number. Opting to destroy the linearity of the main drum pattern and reconstruct it into offbeat, Scarlit Port turns Reflection into a more concentrated and proactive process - the sort that runs at 136 BPM, and as syncopated kicks set the head-rocking tone, various sets of clanging, sizzling and acid-based samples assigned to additional arrangements of percussion keep adding fuel to the fire, making this remix a high-energy, club-oriented composition.

Release Type: EP

Release Date: 3 March 2017

Release Format: Digital

Record Label • Catalog: Monolith Records • MRDG023

Purchase Links: Beatport • Junodownload • Bandcamp