We Will Fail – Hand That Heals / Hand That Bites (Monotype Rec.)

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Polish electronic producer and graphic artist Aleksandra Grunholz released her debut album as We Will Fail ‘Verstorung’ in 2014, its stripped down and noisy post-techno explorations attracting comparisons with the likes of Emptyset, Demdike Stare and Pharmakon. Two years on, this second album ‘Hand That Heals / Hand That Bites’ offers up a collection split into two considerably divergent halves. As the title hints, the seven tracks that make up the first ‘Hand That Heals’ half of this album place their emphasis upon more subtle and delicate atmospheres, offering what’s easily this collection’s more spacious and introspective side.

‘Work Out’ sees an ebbing wash of muted ambient tones being overtaken by layers of abrasive white noise, only for the distortion to suddenly drop out as flickering broken rhythms and burbling electronics rattle and chatter away, before ‘Trouble With Time’ sends a muted kickdrum pulse murmuring against frequency modulated bleeps and glitchy textures, in what’s easily one of the more isolationist and abstracted moments to be found here. Elsewhere, ‘Didn’t Work Out’ offers up a creepy wander through stripped back, skittering beats and eerie yawning ambience that sees the delay-treated harmonics evoking a symphonic swell in slow motion against the flickering downbeat rhythms.

As you’d expect, the eight tracks that make up the second ‘Hand That Bites’ section of this album sees things taking on a harder edge, with a more energetic and aggressive rhythmic presence in evidence. ‘Unlightening’ sees a relentless industrial techno pulse in place as filtered kickdrums pound monotonously against surging bursts of distortion, the entrance of delicately chiming tones adding a gentle counterpoint the restless machine flexing beneath, before ‘Patience’ sees twitchy kickdrum flurries and insectoid rattles giving way to a lockstep rhythmic groove as oddly Neu!-esque synth arpeggios burble away in the background, the entire track carrying a curiously Krautrock-tinged sense of glide. A very impressive second album from We Will Fail that’s well worth seeking out.

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