Slovakian dark electronic duo Disharmony (aka Lord Sauron and Ryby) first emerged back in 2002 with their debut album Moonflower on Broken Seal, and since then, they’ve continued to release a steady stream of material on labels including Aliens Production and Monopol. This latest longplayer Evolution follows on the heels of last year’s collection of remixes for other artists, Cloned – The Other Side Of Evolution, and represents Disharmony’s fifth artist album in total, as well as their second for the Chicago-based Tympanik Audio label. What’s most immediately apparent upon listening to Evolution is the degree of care the duo have taken with the intricate sound design, with tracks such as expansive opener ‘Revolution’ beautifully blending an underlying sense of sinister yet lush bass presence with meticulously sculpted broken downbeat electronic rhythms and twinkling melodic keyboards.
It’s a fusion of elements that also slides satisfyingly into the headnod hip-hop meets wistful ambient electronics and classical piano orchestration of ‘Coma’ and ‘Dandora’s shimmering widescreen dubbed-out excursion into smoked-out chill. While there’s certainly no disputing the quality of the arrangements and production on display here, it’s the occasional vocals that prove to be slightly more problematic. When Sauron’s vocals slide into the mix halfway through ‘Revolution’, he sounds so much like Skinny Puppy’s Ogre (down to the exact intonation and phrasing) that things pretty much turn straight into a Puppy homage; something also particularly apparent on ‘Legend’, which could almost pass for an outtake from Puppy’s most recent Mythmaker album. It’s a shame because the vocals serve to detract from the album slightly as a whole, highlighting the inescapable influence of that aforementioned Canadian electro-industrial band on the tracks collected here, rather than allowing the listener to really experience them on their own merits.
Chris Downton
