“Computer Music for Hooligans” about sums this release up, or maybe “Radical Pythagorism”? Both quotes can be attributed to Spain’s Roc Jiménez de Cisneros, the maniac brain with the soul of a lurking assassin behind the Evol moniker. Joined, for this release by Stephen Sharp, the Evol-run Alku label bring the noise in the form of the iconic and instantly recognisable rave “hoover” sound, favoured by the likes of Joey Beltram and DJ Trace. In the hands of Evol, a patch that was originally conjured into being one quiet afternoon in 1986 by a bored tech-head called Eric Pressing (for the Roland Juno), sounds less recognisable than in the classic rave canon. Similar to the drummer for The Winstons, little did Pressing know just what an impact his invention would one day have upon certain strains of dance music.
Rave Slime Side One is hoovered to infinity, as the tones ebb & flow like an ambulance siren or an imagined spaceship. There’s a subtle bass hoover going on amongst the insistent high-end hi-jinks, but most of the action comes from the mid-to-high end of the audible audio spectrum, setting my teeth on edge at high volume. Imagine a bank of synths all set to play the hoover patch, connected up and powered by a dodgy old two-stroke outboard motor that has been rescued from a prolonged sojourn in the murky depths. Slowly, ghostly tones and harmonics appear through the hoovered murk.
On the flip, the sound is even more woozy and synapse-frying, as a swarm of angry African bees get stuck in a malfunctioning industrial device, most likely employed to shred large bovines into small chunks. According to the artist, “Symmetry-breaking lattices create a mesh of self-similar patterns”. Mining a similar friable digital vein to Goodiepal’s “Radical computer music”, facets of the Mego sound (such as Florian Hecker), moonlighting SND boffin Mark Fell and Marcus Schmikler, Evol hoist the sacred up for ridicule and artistic reinterpretation. I just wonder if this release is healthy for my turntable, and my sanity?
Oliver Laing
