Room brings us the first track which is a sort of idm tune that prominently features piano style melodies reminiscent of the kind you would find in the Aphex Twin album, drukqs. What follows after are two more tracks that delve deeper into the realm of glitchy idm and ‘drill and bass’. Four great ambient-esque, glitchy and downtempo tracks make up the middle of the album. Almost relaxing, surprisingly, we are greeted on the way out by a lofi uptempo 8-bit track by Bit Shifter and another track that has an 8-bit vibe that doesn’t quite sound 8-bit by Puzzle. A great sounding glitch pop track by Johnny Square rounds out the compilation giving the whole album a satisfying feeling of completion. Half melodic half noise, the compilation becomes its own entity as a whole and the tracks feel incomplete if listened alone. I especially liked how well the glitchy second part of the Orkis flowed into the sombre, eerie moods of Three Goes on Forever.
Stuff that gets my attention
03. Manic repression
With it’s super fast pitch shifted snares and pitched voice samples that seem to utter “watermelon” repeatedly, it’s hard to avoid paying attention when this track introduces itself to one’s ears. It’s weird, unexpected and totally experimental.
04. Fire Distinguisher
A dubby bassline and constant beat structure make this track a great intro to the downtempo section of the compilation. Repetitive throughout spiced with some scratched voice samples. It offers the much needed stability that was missing in the first 3 tracks.
07. Three Goes on Forever
This track keeps me on my toes as I listen for what happens next. The ominous soundscapes paint a picture that is applicable to post apocalyptic futures.
08. Transmode Virus
Excite excite. 8 bit. Most exciting structured track of the whole compilation keeps changing. A stand out if only because it was also much louder than the rest.
09. Warped space
The rising arpeggiated tune is really enjoyable. Warm sounding synth melody together with likeable female one shot vocal samples makes it all the better although a bit on the cute side. Just give it a listen. Unexpectedly, 3/4s through the track, we transcend into a completely different sounding ending that seems like a whole different track by itself. This surprisingly flows well with the next track which is….
10. CS drummer
Sounds to me like a fusion of folk, pop and glitch. High on noise and high on listenability.
