As Atlatl, Seattle’ Phil Hendricks mines jumpy glitches and other dislocating tones and frequencies using analogue electronics. The 13 tracks on his latest record – plus the long, ephemeral hidden one – were selected, edited, and mastered by sound artist Alex Keller from the fruits of two studio sessions. The pieces don’ vary widely, and in fact often stop and start abruptly enough to evoke a continuum of prickly, turbulent textures somewhere between ambience and white noise.
“The Arrogant Folds’ introduces itself with sharp, juddering glitches and then lashes back and forth before summoning wind-like abrasion and similarly harsh flickers. Other tracks range in result from dense vibrations to theremin-esque squeals to submerged gurgles. There’ a bass-like loop bouncing through parts of “Rocket the Anemone’, while the standout “Taxa! Taxa! Taxa!’ contains some of the weirder tones here, as well as a wobbly pulse in the back and a longish tail of gaping space.
It’s all particularly engaging via headphones, but also somewhat same-y overall. The aforementioned tracks prove that Hendricks has a flair for finding new sounds; he just needs to get out of what feels like his comfort zone and pursue them a bit further.
Doug Wallen
