Düshan Düshan - EP

Experimental producer Düshan Düshan got their start late last year with the release of their two-track debut "Charlie". While remaining to be discovered, founder Aleksander Sokolov has described his project as an amalgamation of experimental music. Nonetheless, he insists that he does not stick to one genre or the next. Sokolov thus describes his latest release, simply titled "EP", as "a set of abstract textural pieces in an avant-garde sense". Influenced by the likes of Merzbow, Container, Lighting Bolt, Autechre, and so many more, "EP" is a mixed blend of unobtainable noises only available through the power of synthesizers. 

What I found to be the most interesting piece on the album is the second track titled 'DD EP1 Amb [35]'. As you should be able to guess from the title, this piece focuses around ambient noise and does so in a phenomenal manner. Light synths wave in the foreground while an electric-current sounding noise runs predominantly in the background. This makes for a harmonious and extremely relaxing piece. The first time I listened to this song, I just got back from a ten-hour shift at work - and it made my muscles relax and my fried-brain focus on the good in life. The eight-minute song has various shifts in tone, such as around the three-minute mark when more rampant and playful electronics enter the fray. But the overall goal of mixing and measuring equal parts noise and calming ambient textures into one track never ceased. The only part of the song that I really didn't enjoy was the final thirty seconds; it turns into a glitchy noise affair that betrayed the mood of the previous seven-and-a-half minutes.

The following song, 'DD EP1 Tech [140]', thus enters the fray of noise-techno. This down-and-dirty track is six-minutes and nineteen-seconds of pure, unadulterated hopping futuristic noise-beats. I could easily see this spinning at underground industrial clubs or even being used in a cyberpunk setting somewhere along the way. 

But with the good also comes the bad, and the bad begins the EP and ends it as well. 'Carbon Paper' is the first song on the EP and the majority of it sounds like a ton of other noise tracks I've heard in the past. Sure, the extra textural work in the background gives it a bit of a unique quality, but in comparison to tracks two and three, it pales. The final track on the album 'Lenin In September' is just a by-the-books noise song. A grating, two-and-a-half minute piece that, once again, I could swear I've heard a million times from other noise bands in the past. While these songs are well produced, they lack the innovation and inspiration that tracks two and three came with. 

What I'm loving about Düshan Düshan is that his experimental works that combine more than one genre with noise is phenomenal. The ambient-noise piece on track two is an inspirational, moody, and yet calming eight-minute divert from everyday life. It’s also a diversion from the standard and what I’ve come to expect from musicians in the experimental field. Track three is just a wonderfully crafted noise-techno song that, again, puts a unique spin on the genre. Where he lacks, however, is in originality in his straightforward noise pieces as exemplified in tracks one and two. That being said, tracks two and three take up about fourteen-and-a-half minutes of the EP while the other two only take up about five-and-a-half minutes. So, yes, I do recommend the EP whole-heartedly, even if I’m only visiting it for two songs. Six-and-a-half out of ten!