Average user rating    (0 vote)

Megalopsy

The Abstract Machine

Trishula (Germay)

I would never have really thought that hard as nails, nightmarish stuff would lend itself too well to the artist-album-as-fluid-single-entity sort of thing. But this bunch of utter psychotics from Argentina have pulled a bit of a blinder, in fact more than that: this album (divided into three movements, sort of) has so many moments that just have me shaking my head in disbelief, grinning like a buffoon, and/or experiencing a rekindled faith in electronic music. The intro, Chaos, has a great sound to it, easing in with big breaks that clear the sonic pallet and ease open the scope for the distant, racing kick of Obscure Warlock, which proceeds to quickly dip you in batter before deep-frying you with high-end mentalism. Fractal Circus is unforgiving, heavy going with a rigid groove to it that’s caustic until you can’t take it any more, at which point it breaks and picks up this noise that sounds like a fountain, coming up from the centre and cascading 303style over the edges, before the tune employs some deliciously evil alice-in-wonderland carousel melodies under scything midrange swoops to really whip things into shape. The wonderfully-titled Goblin Grin has an almost Finnish backbone to it, and is all about pulling surprises out of the hat. Great changes, great noises, utter laughter eeks from the speakers. Absolutely excellent – just indescribable, but let’s say something like “all the evil demons you’ve ever encountered are back as mascots on a cereal box, and they’re chasing you down looking to fortify you with something rather punchier than vitamins and iron”. That’ll do. The flow here really starts to work, with the track easing out into Juggling Spheres, which puts a bit more zany funk into proceedings. More like a hammer horror moment, and the drop into the final run deserves to be committed to a mental institution. Then, the track shifts int an actually pretty gorgeous, yet still twisted, transylvaniac breaks movement. Sounding like a completely different track, and further proof that this is designed to work well played all the way through, I mean this really is something that other artists could think of doing. It adds as a great buffer, before Pachamama thunks in, sounding all the more energised for the hiatus. Building up to a really nice and clear peak, it’s a little like it’s taken an oldskool melody and dragged it through a hellish blender. The laughing monkeys then signal the start of something sweet: Monkey Supernova, possibly the standout track here. It’s just hilarious, it picks up and then messes about and just makes me laugh… oh man. So many changes, time signatures and basslines and midsection after midsection, orchestral stuff… I mean this is just sheer genius. Sheer. Genius. Space Cadet marks the final movement of the album, Cosmos, and also suggests a more menacing turn. It’s a less playful vibe, picking up deep atmospheres at the break, all hanging together nicely. Devenir-Cosmos has an incredibly individual sound, all high-end and but driving, a perfect way to close the album before the outro Cosmos stabs in with messed up breaks, incredibly messed up sounds, delightful movement and… my god. Just staggering. There’s little more I can say that I haven’t said already: this is a ballsy, feisty triumph of an album, utterly adorable and with a gazillion times more imagination and flair than you’ll find on most discs. It may not be your normal style of psytrance, but it’s unquestionably good electronic music.

9