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REVIEWS
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Rhomboid
Sleeper Cell
Memebomb
Bolter
Error
Syncrete
Crackpipe
Ashes
Antilife
Blotter
Gritscape
Totenplatz
Retina
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REVIEWS
Endif
Meta
Crunch Pod / Third Wave Collective
Posted: Thursday, November 30, 2006
By: Damon Wilson
By: Damon Wilson
With the cold precision of a power-driven musical surgeon, Endif brings you the highly polished yet manically aggressive Meta.
With a compelling blend of chaos and control, Meta should be on many a listener's top album of the year list. Jason Hollis, a.k.a. Endif, combines varying styles of industrial and experimental music. The results of his manipulations are sonic sculptures that are rhythmically noisy with an underlying clinical aesthetic. One gets the impression that they are listening to equal parts artist and theorist, and thankfully, it really doesn't matter when either part begins or ends. The brilliance of Meta is that at its shining moments it is both contaminated and hygienic. The album is comprised of mostly instrumentals with the occasional track offering up only minimal lyrical content sung with slightly distorted vocals.
"Rhomboid" serves as the introduction and proves proper foreshadowing for the rest of the album. Since Endif is on the Crunch Pod label, and since four of the 13 tracks of this album were previously released on the Caustic vs. Endif album Meld, one might have understandable expectations of the rhythmic noise to follow. However, "Rhomboid" quickly points you in another direction. The song has a rich dark atmosphere with tightly controlled sampling and programming, attention-grabbing and varied percussion, and a haunting yet mechanical melody. There is most definitely a ghost in the shell. On "Antilife" the percussive and sampled elements are firmly grounded in rhythmic noise while the melody takes flight and gives emotion to the machine. No one part of this song that makes it great for it's composed of fairly uncomplicated elements. Yet like many a good song that withstands dissection, it's in how the parts were composed that make it beautiful; a surefire floor killer and easily one of the more melodically memorable tracks. As the song ends, I concur, "Not bad for a human." Complementing "Antilife" is "Blotter," an almost (I repeat almost) acid house inspired industrial instrumental with a lively melody that is all energy from beat one.
As stated before, it is the balance that is struck on the best songs of Meta that make this album such a rare find. Fans of industrial, and more specifically rhythmic noise, will surely herald this release. Those that require lyrics to give context may find Meta wanting, but the inclusion of the few tracks that do have lyrics offer enough contrast to break any monotony that may be felt by going from one instrumental to another. Overall, Meta is one for the time capsule. Let's hope this methodically mad musical originator keeps hacking away.
"Rhomboid" serves as the introduction and proves proper foreshadowing for the rest of the album. Since Endif is on the Crunch Pod label, and since four of the 13 tracks of this album were previously released on the Caustic vs. Endif album Meld, one might have understandable expectations of the rhythmic noise to follow. However, "Rhomboid" quickly points you in another direction. The song has a rich dark atmosphere with tightly controlled sampling and programming, attention-grabbing and varied percussion, and a haunting yet mechanical melody. There is most definitely a ghost in the shell. On "Antilife" the percussive and sampled elements are firmly grounded in rhythmic noise while the melody takes flight and gives emotion to the machine. No one part of this song that makes it great for it's composed of fairly uncomplicated elements. Yet like many a good song that withstands dissection, it's in how the parts were composed that make it beautiful; a surefire floor killer and easily one of the more melodically memorable tracks. As the song ends, I concur, "Not bad for a human." Complementing "Antilife" is "Blotter," an almost (I repeat almost) acid house inspired industrial instrumental with a lively melody that is all energy from beat one.
As stated before, it is the balance that is struck on the best songs of Meta that make this album such a rare find. Fans of industrial, and more specifically rhythmic noise, will surely herald this release. Those that require lyrics to give context may find Meta wanting, but the inclusion of the few tracks that do have lyrics offer enough contrast to break any monotony that may be felt by going from one instrumental to another. Overall, Meta is one for the time capsule. Let's hope this methodically mad musical originator keeps hacking away.
