Cleopatra 2017
By Design
Master remixer and his childhood friend darken their electronica and shape ashen kind of dance.
Harnessing synthesizers haze, Erie Loch used to pitch wicked gloom into industrial sonics for the likes of MINISTRY and PRONG, while a line of his own much less prominent projects – all including kindred spirit Crash MF who’s as adept on ivories – is crowned with WICCID. With a different, much warmer clang, the duo’s debut “By Design” doesn’t offer a great variety of grooves at first glance, yet there’s something immersive about this illusory repetition which, beginning from dry splashes of “Ash” and running towards “The Grand Comedian” where the last laugh is deadly serious, take beat-driven attack to the verge of distress.
The slower throb in “Break” and “The Reconstructing Gods” brings this memorable message home but, given a harder edge, melodic swirl behind the infectious “Lights” and the growl-stricken “Torn” – high on electropop influences – illuminates the tunnel’s end. “Prey Predator” spiking the overall drift with a sense of futile urgency, hope and optimism wouldn’t find a lot of space here, although it’s “Anxiety” that, paradoxically, is the romantic apex of the album. Piano snippets as a sign of life in the otherwise desperate “Fire In Your Veins” and “Inhuman Nature” show how the little ensemble with a big sound may fare on the road – and, unlike many of their peers, the duo do play live – so Loch’s design will have a great potential. Wicked, indeed.
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