2methylBulbe1ol - Golem

Oh so it's like this, is it. Three tracks of fiery brimstone explode upon my ears and I'm staggering backwards attempting to maintain any kind of composure while I listen to them. You see, this one man packs considerable punch into each song he composes. I've researched 2methylBulbeo1 and he has chosen quality over quantity, there isn't much out by him. What has been released, however, will attack your nervous system thoroughly. This is a perpetual war of sound carved into musical form, so stop whatever you're doing when you hear this and relinquish control of your thoughts. It's a fusillade flying this way and that, you won't come away from 'Golem' without suffering the consequences. His approach is that of say, a bird of prey, closing in on it's victim no matter how cleverly it attempts to hide. There's no running, our French producer has one thing he's doing with this EP: he's attempting to provide the manual that will tell you how to lose your mind. That Phillp K. Dick quote on the back cover is no accident.

Imagine, if you can, the feeling of every capacitor being blown out or the shredding of all your synapses at once. The delirious, clammy sensation of knowing that you're having rational, coherent thought for the final time. It's off into the void, lads. What remains after are decimated remnants of cerebral dissonance. Each echo becoming more overpowering, the feedback loop shorting out any connections which may have escaped the brilliant shock wave of consciousness going nova. Those thick, viscous beats move everything along with a palpable menace; if tension is not your forte, if you're averse to dread, 'Golem' will do things to you that you aren't even ready for. This really does have the sensation of a brain stem disconnecting from the base of the skull and then exiting the body. Electricity shoots through all of these tunes like a bolt of lightning scorching the ground, the sheer level of raw power crammed into these works is enough to blast me out of my chair. It doesn't stop there, either. The continual insertion of melody lines and darkly ruminating vocal samples shove me right out of the window and into the street.

Abusive, yes, but the bitingly carnivorous nature of 'Golem' makes for quite a view as you are consumed and then digested by the grotesquely obscene panache this 26 year old perfectionist executes. This isn't all you'll find to discover on 'Golem', either. You see, there's a fourth track on here also. A very conflicting remix from the agonizingly inconsistent HECQ. If only his own work were at this level, instead of that last album which made me tune him out. He begins with a minimal build of organic sounds and then proceeds to bash you in the face with a smashing version of the title track, "Golem". It clearly shows that he's very much still got it, I just don't know what the fuck was going on with 'Avenger'. I'm crossing my fingers that it was only a fluke.

I'll conclude by stating that it's not all loping rhythms and bruising breaks, there's a facet to 2methyl's work which is what attracted me initially. He has no fear of slowing things down to a near stop in order to unleash a plethora of wickedly cruel effects which he then incorporates into the meltdown which is a track like "Crawling Chaos". I've given up trying to peg what time signature he operates in, they change with incredibly unpredictable violence. Suddenly, we're screaming along to a bone cracking tempo which recalls some of the finest tech-step I ever heard courtesy of acts like Subwave and Decoder. Even Tech Itch was listenable in those days and clearly, this guy has some of these people in his crates. But he doesn't just ape what they've done, he takes the most aggressive aspects and then somehow puts his own spin on things, increasing the firepower of his arsenal exponentially.

This is merciless, absolutely inhuman machinery given license to possess whatever it comes across. 'Golem' would like to have you over for dinner, if you get my drift. Mar 04 2012