In an album so heavily entrenched in a machinated aesthetic, it’s surprising then that the disc would take its name from the one track that reminds you there are two humans behind the scabrous beats and vortexes of sound. Amidst the dropping of digital cluster bombs that explode in showers of bass-swathed fuzz and the staccato, skittering glitches, Sukuran’ double bass rears its organic head, voices appears like half-remembered dreams, guitars swirl with delay and a doleful sax moans.
“Gen’ is the album’ centrepiece, and is fittingly the title track to Berlin outfit Patron & Patron’ latest release. On Gen, beats crackle and cascade, whirlpools of sound slice across the digital landscape at grating, ear-piercing pitches and synthesised bass remains anchored murkily below the surface. Gen is as much an exploration into the digital realm for the composers as it is an excursion for the listener into the inner workings of Patron & Patron. The outcome of this is two-fold: at times, Gen is overly monochromatic, bordering on self-indulgent. On a track like “Finding Home Problem’, the duo overlooks something as simple as a coherent mix, with shronks and whhhuuurls building to eardrum-bursting point. It turns Gen into a battle of endurance, rather than something that’s enjoyable.
Conversely, Frederik van de Moortel and Me Raabenstein – the brains behind the brawn – balance the equations nicely on “Either Or’, “Bouncing Moonlights’ and “Boon Dog Bone’. There’ a soft, almost delicate, touch to these songs that appropriately and intuitively marry sleek, knife-life rhythms and warm instrumentation like bass, soft, ethereal synthesiser pads and – in the case of “Boon Dog Bone’ – glockenspiel.
Sure, these guys like Autechre, and they’ve probably been listening to a bit too much Gantz Graf, but when you’re not being pummeled by the crashing waves in their digital sea, you can always find solace in the calm.
Dom Alessio
