“Done with the Scene” is the song of an artist still trying to figure out what to do next. A droning, electro-pop synth melody first stares at the sunset while holding his chin with both hands. The song then grows more restless as a steady mid-tempo beat pushes the momentum with bits of guitar dropping in and a brazen Spaghetti Western-synth shouting out the melody. The song title suggests that Miguel Depedro is trying to move on after quitting his habit of being a yin-yang, either releasing records as a noisenik who smashes everything in a room with a whiffle bat or releasing Mother’s Day presents of synth-pop. As to where he goes next, it’s difficult to predict. The Done with the Scene EP gives some suggestions with remixes of a few tracks from his album Resilience as well as a cover of Annie’s cult hit, “Heartbeat.” In the latter, Depedro’s treatment keeps its focus on the song’s hook by smothering it with fuzzed-up shoegazer textures and scattered, mumbled vocals. It could’ve been much stronger without the odd synth screeches and the rather disjointed synching of everything.

As for the remixes, post-rock stars Mogwai infuse “Down” with rawer energy by piercing the song with feedback and garbled beats, along with playing hide-and-seek with the melody. Bravecaptain places a cosmic glint to “Down” with cascading synth work and live, rolling beats that is all sublime until the band gets cute by singing the song title. Elsewhere, Her Space Holiday turns “Spanish Song” into a song that could play on an in-store video at The Gap, and Swedish post-techno maven Dwayne Sodaberk steals the show by radically mutating the melody from the gentle guitar ballad, “King of Harm” into a rampaging, post-punk dirge that resembles an Interpol b-side. Sodaberk’s remix is brave as hell for risking utter failure—God knows what he would’ve done with “Heartbeat.”

Tigerbeat6 / 126
[Cameron Macdonald]

Only Ricardo Villalobos terms a four-track fifty-minute mind-melt an EP. That last hypenation, though, is the key. No mere 12” is going to actually melt minds. Sear it, maybe. Opener “Ichso” comes close—placing a bassline and murky echo pattern underneath two competing flamenco guitar (?) lines. “Duso” takes the beat up for its length, and pushes the melody far below the surface, instead focusing on the infinite possibilities created by miniscule droplets of watery delay. “Erso” reminds of little else besides Autechre’s most recent excursions into complete abstraction while somehow maintaining an eye on the dance floor , while “Sieso” may be as close as he’s come to another “Dexter” since its release. Is there a more fascinatingly dense artist working in dance music today?

Cadenza / CADENZA 08
[Todd Burns]

Stylus writers have remained curiously silent on the newest offerings from Richard D. James and it’s easy to see why, based on the first two entries into the Analord series. Anyone who wants to bother taking 800 words to review the thing better be spending 700 recounting AFX’s historical impact or something equally as boring. Which reminds me: Analord 1’s aceeeid revivalism is inconsequential to most who came to him after his Twin alias came to be regarded as his “important” work. For those who get off on it, you know what to expect: a bit more melodically complex than most acid and a whole lot harder to mix into and out of.

Rephlex / ANALORD 01 / ANALORD 02
[Todd Burns]

One of the best producers over the past few years in American experimental techno has been Sutekh. Unfortunately, the dearth of consistent releases under his name makes it a hard case to actually prove, but his most recent 12”, “Two Rhapsodies” makes it plainly and convincingly. The A-side, “Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Variation 17,” is a glistening melodic beast of a tune, which might fall in line with Luciano’s recent productions if it wasn’t so hard-edged beat-wise. The B-side is similar, but has a cut-up beat that places him closer to Akufen. Luckily, the sumptuousness of the melody melds easily with the metallic click and clank that undergirds it.

Context / TEXT_16
[Todd Burns]

A re-recording of Apparat’s Peel Session of May 2004, Silizium sees Sascha Ring presenting the leaps made from the melodic IDM of last years’ Shapemodes EP. Which means: live instruments and voices. “Komponent” is the keeper, sounding like a more vital version of the good track that fools you into buying the new Morr Music release each time out. “Not A Good Place” is moody down-tempo that doesn’t quite connect as well, while both “Silizium” and “It’s Gonna Be A Long Walk” walk a more abstract bent, the latter being the slightly less glitched out and more approachable of the two. Bus (good), Rechzentrum (better), Telefon Tel Aviv (best), and Apparat himself close it out with remixes.

Shitkatapult / Strike 53
[Todd Burns]