[PCMS 2020.2] Relapse - Underground Rave Hits for a Shuttered Club

The first notes of Relapse’s “Underground Rave Hits for a Shuttered Club” are obscured with abrasive noise. For this Pinecone Moonshine album, the Bristol based musician known for drum and bass drew from many influences. Melodies and harmonies suggest ideas from extreme metal, blues, folk, and unique medieval, ritual notations. The album ranges from slower tempos like the funky 100 bpm “Curse, or a Swan” up to the 200 bpm breakcore “Hitroll Beat Heart.”

Percussion across the album consists of synthesized bass layered with household objects. “Two Worlds Colliding…” and “Cognitive Dissonance” which are in the realm of drum and bass are kept sparse allowing a focus on the found percussion and bassline melodies. The collaborations as D n G feature guitar and swirl in electronic haze. Relapse worked with Greef on “Oh God Parts I and II” which is between noise and ambient.

The album ends with “Generic Excuse” leaving the listener with a poignant melody of distorted bell sounds.

Track 2 originally released on Omni Music: omnimusic.bandcamp.com/album/unchartered-territory-lp.