Electronic producer Omega dB hails from Pamplona, and this download-only EP ‘Utopian Reality’ offers up his debut release, collecting together four original tracks alongside two remixes by fellow Spanish artists Brunetto and Skygaze. For the most part, the predominant mood here leans towards darkly ominous breakbeat-centred electronics with a discernible post-IDM undercurrent, with the likes of the Tympanik Audio and Ad Noiseam labels particularly coming to mind as similar aesthetics here. Whatever the case, the emphasis is firmly upon sweeping, widescreen atmospheres here, with opening track ‘Perpetual’ sending crisp shuffling breakbeats gliding against an ominous backdrop of ebbing bass drones and echoed-out electronics that swells to an almost orchestral conclusion. ‘Go Further’ meanwhile locks down into a seething mass of rattling, mechanistic breakbeats and surging bass synths, continually building up walls of tension as the harsh rhythms snap away with robotic precision, and the swelling electronic loops rise into a generator-like hum.
Elsewhere, ‘Black Hole’ sets the controls for doomy electro as insectlike snares twitch against eerie decayed sounding drones, pitched down synth sweeps and overdriven bass buzzes, in what’s easily this EP’s most skeletal, yet curiously funky moment. The remixes included here are pretty strong as well, with Brunetto reworking ‘Perpetual’ into dreamlike, delayed-out opulence as clicking percussion and jazzy snares inject a sense of loose swing against the distant bleed of what sounds like soul horns, only for the entire track to suddenly lock down into a relentlessly crunching groove as harmonic drones howl away in the background. By contrast, Skygaze takes things off into Flying Lotus-esque territory with his remix of ‘Go Further’, as wonky hip hop beats and shimmering synth arpeggios gradually give way to rattling footwork snares, the dewy, pitchbent tones that float in the background adding a woozy edge to one of the few wanders into brighter shades to be found here. Those with a taste for brooding, ‘ghost in the machine’-style IDM-electro will no doubt find much to like on this impressive debut EP from Omega dB.
