The tension in John Carpenter’s horror classic The Thing is generated by not knowing which member of the doomed arctic research team has been taken over by the shape shifting alien and exactly when it’s going to break out and reap havoc. In a similar vein listening to Gaiser’s sure shot collection of dancefloor burners creates the same feelings of suspense and intrigue. Initially we’re presented with a familiar battery of sounds and effects – harsh, angular snares, rolling sub bass lines, chattering bird like percussion and twisted, cut-up vocal snippets that together make up his unmistakeable style, but as the drama unfolds you can never quite tell where the attack will come from and which sound will suddenly loom up large or morph out beyond recognition.
These four new cuts combine for over 30 minutes of pulsating peak time pressure and the title track Pullpush gets straight down to business without frills or fuss. The looping groove and tight elastic bass pattern set the scene for reflective reverbs and pitch bends to tease and tear at each new element. Film samples burst through the beats leaving trails and echoes before crystallising into more lucid phrases as the high-end tom pattern tops off a typically breathless workout. The squelchy FX that enhance the rhythm section then introduce a more pensive, frozen state during the lead-out as hollow, ghostly pads cradle back and forth across the stereo field.
Oolooloo implements a deep, tonal bassline kept in check by a crunchy lofi snare. Jittery percussive sequences scatter across the dancefloor but this time it’s the tactile bassline that starts to morph and mutate, dovetailing with urgent rhythmic sequences that could shake the dead back to life. Pitched down, metallic vocals offer a point of focus as the bass patch gradually unfurls, until it’s billowing recklessly from the speakers and suddenly it’s as if we’ve been cut adrift in a static sea. The temperature momentarily drops before the warm glow returns, banishing the chilled percussion riffs to the outer reaches.
There’s more subsonic preoccupation on mfnstmp (digital only) accompanied by explosive washes of white noise and glassy percussion lines before the bassline picks up the pace, announcing the return of those unique analogue chirps that call back and forth across a darkened sky with a special language of their own. Then, after the scratchy background noise intro, Semaphore (digital only) employs more dark, hallucinatory vocal loops that cleverly expand and contract before we’re once again taken to breaking point. Sounds retreat into the darkness and all the oxygen is sucked out of the room before returning with an overwhelming intensity, complete with abstracted melodies that add wings to this beast of a tune.
A Side
Pullpush 9:30
B Side
Oolooloo 8:29
Digital Only Tracks
Mfnstnp 6:11
Semaphore 8:30
In stores October 12th, 2009
Samples
http://www.wordandsound.de/article/61574
