Cause and Effect (64'51") leads us quite far away from where it begins. The seventh module in the Tone Science series from DiN Records again echoes the utopian ideals of EM with another ennead of innovative musicians and their varied and inventive works.
Built around a recurring block of contrasting chords Abalone Vortex by Andrea Cichecki fills out in a focus of energetic cycling sequencer notes. Tempestarius from Chris Meyer proceeds in a more ceremonial fashion, deliberately unspooling pulsations of patterns in painstaking wonder. Rodent (a.k.a. Eric Cheslak) realizes the inescapable creation of something static, minimal and hypnotic in Dim Rill - whereas Flutter by Dark Sparkler (a.k.a. Kyle Swisher) infiltrates our dreams with a repeating theme and a mild mind buzzing crescendo to emphasize its somber narrative. Blakmoth (a.k.a. Jack Smith) and Of Ash and Sorrow has the air of being outside of time, yet emerges to contribute something brilliantly imagined, and carefully crafted to the continually expanding history of Electronic Music - as its fixed tones and aching suspensions melt into a remarkable elaboration of sound. Pareidola, Brendan Pollard's 1970s Berlin-School space mission, adds something superb and memorable to the many emblematic documents written from Phaedra onward. Followed by Hecataea, Andrew Ostler's kinetic concentus of repetitive structures and rising rhythms, this music advances under an entrancing, commanding artistic vision. A Hopeless Momentum propels listeners alongside James Cigler's handling of mechanized broken chords, which plays out in a chamber of resonances and reverberations - until Jon Palmer's Near Earth manifests itself to draw the ear with its complex and powerful quality of sound. Dazed notes drift downward, rubbing, eroding and corroding one another. Yet, as with every track in this series, beneath all the urgent circuits and synth-smithing we feel a human being animating and enlivening each piece.
Subjecting their raw electrical material to a number of obscure routes and processes along warm circuitry and wires, the group of nine found on Cause and Effect have provided another most enjoyable and equally fulfilling collection of sonic statements of creative endeavor. Designed to facilitate an appreciation of this field's depth and breath of expression, and the diverse personalities populating this realm, this seventh chapter in the Tone Science series is another exhibition of our faith in the future - from where all great music comes.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 13 April 2023
