Six months on from his initial ‘Meditations / Industry’ release, this latest vinyl-only EP on Dark Entries ‘Warehouse Invocation’ offers up the second salvo of reissued material from Texas-based techno producer Bill Converse and collects together three tracks originally released on cassette label Obsolete Future in 2013 alongside a previously unreleased track recorded in 2014. As with ‘Meditation / Industry’, all of the tracks gathered here see Converse recording live to tape in a single take using vintage analogue synthesisers and drum machines, giving much of this material the atmosphere of a live jam more than anything else.
Curiously, while two of the tracks gathered here stretch well over the ten minute mark, the other two are far shorter and more concise edits. Of the more lengthy tracks, ‘Warehouse Invocation’ certainly lives up to its title, its meandering midtempo drum machine shuffles, grinding bass burbles and chiming melodic sequences gradually building over its extended duration in a manner that almost calls to mind some ritualised gathering, the brighter melodies that tease and refract in the foreground pushing the darker elements to the edges. Indeed, its unhurried and hypnotic trajectory calls to mind a gentler take on Fuck Buttons’ or perhaps even Chris & Cosey’s more linear rhythms, given an added acid undertone.
‘Senys Magick’ meanwhile sees distorted scattershot snares offering a snapping counterpoint to moody noodling analogue synth pads that seem to smear into the background as bleeping tones rise into focus, before ‘Consulted Acid’ strips things right back, sending elastic percussive tones bouncing off a ghostly undercarriage of clicking hi-hat rolls and thudding distorted 4/4 kicks. It’s the previously unreleased track recorded in 2014, ‘Riverbank’, that easily offered up my favourite moment here, with Converse placing one of his microphones outside his bedroom window to the record the night sounds of the river nearby as he sends things off on a juddering twelve minute wander through tribal midtempo techno rhythms and eerie minor key synth ambiences, the entire track relentlessly propelling itself forward like a train passing through the veiled night. Indeed, the grooves prove to be so immersive and hypnotically smooth, that it’s easy to lose yourself in the cycling layers before the entire thing comes to an abrupt halt.
