David Dando-Moore’s 2003 debut album as Detritus “Endogenous’ clearly showed the UK-based producer’ electro-industrial roots, the contents leaning predominantly towards hard-edged drum and bass, balanced with a sweeping orchestral approach reminiscent of Dead Can Dance’ gothic atmospheres. Intended as a statement against “the parodic and saddening low quality of many electro-industrial releases”, this follow-up “Origin’ inhabits considerably more downbeat terrain, with Dando-Moore building emotive atmosphere amidst frequently harsh and jarring rhythmic elements.
Slow armour-plated tracks such as the forlorn “Dead Daffodils’ certainly manage to conjure lush cinematic atmosphere, the sweep of vaguely Eastern European orchestration counterpointed effectively by sparse, distorted industrial beats. “Tinsel’ meanwhile represents a descent into humming walls of droning electrical substation noise punctuated by menacing electro rhythms that calls to mind Techno Animal and Dalek’ explorations into swaggering industrial dub-hop.
While a little more variation would perhaps have been welcome over the entire running length, the inclusion of two breakcore IDM reworkings by labelmates Mad E.P. and Mothboy serves to shift things into a more lively gear. Apart from one misjudged leap into generic industrial doofiness during “Sense’, this is consistently strong stuff – imagine Meat Beat Manifesto getting down in symphonic mode, perhaps.
