Recently I’ve been on a binge of IDM and experimental electronica, relistening to some classic and not-so-classic releases. The BPM rollercoasters, style switches, and eclectic synth sounds are a must in this “subgenre”, and when I saw this release by I was just expecting more of the same.
Oh boy I was so, so wrong (yet kinda right*) about it.
Your Smoldering Mind is to this date the latest album by dj katarakta, a dark drum n’ bass project that… kinda blew my mind. Don’t get me wrong, I love my niche electronic music subgenres, but being mostly into the family tree of hard dance kinda disconnects you from so many other forms of expression possible with almost the same tools. As a self-taught musician, I also dabbled in creating EDM, but never broke the so-called “rules” of music production as much as this incredible release does.
Starting with Avalanche, a 23-minute track that sets the mood immediately. Until minute 8-ish, it reminded me of dark ambient soundtracks, especially the ones in J-horror games. It gives a crushing atmosphere that stays in the track for its whole duration. After this intro, the mood changes completely, bringing a harsher, more distorted sound with lots of drum loops, noisy saw synths, and almost angelic pads that feel completely disconnected from the situation you are immersed in: whatever was stalking you is finally closing in, and your mind is trying to find a way to either survive or accept death.
The second track, with the title of Absorption, is without a doubt the best of the album. After the near-death experience of Avalanche, this track starts in a really slow and unnerving manner: the use of almost acoustic-sounding drums at the start should give you a sense of tranquility and even hope. But this is just starting, and the few minutes of calmness are immediately revoked when the amen breaks come back with a really acid and catchy bass-line (still humming it while writing this), the same kind that made me fall in love with trance music all these years before. At the 11-minute mark, you will hear that almost recognizable UK DnB sound that lots of people enjoy, but yet there is something wrong about it. Something is still lurking nearby, and there is no time to breathe. Things get out of hand really fast at the end of the track, where some of the previous elements come back with a really nice main synth melody, giving the listener a sense of satisfaction because of how “whole” this feels, even in its eternal weirdness. Really, really good track.
Asymptota is the name of the closing track for this album. Without a doubt the most experimental of the bunch. At this point, everything feels really drum-pattern-like: all of the instruments work in the same cadence of drum machine, in which it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly if the sound you are hearing has a distinct barrier between drum loops and instruments. This gives the track a big jump in the psychedelic direction, making you lose your mind completely in its self-contained world. Adding to this, in the middle of the track it becomes an out-of-tempo, messy and wobbly jungle-inspired loop with voices repeating the same words for almost 3 minutes. It was a nice surprise, as it reminded me of the kind of music kids these days call “PS2 DnB”. After all of this, the track goes back to the strange sound it has been brewing until now, just to give it an almost manic-attack-inducing ending, grabbing a lot of modern breakcore influences to send off this project to its end.
With an incredible sound and a visual language that catches the eye, dj katarakta has created an album that made me fall in love again with one of the weirdest yet still inviting sounds of electronic music. Even if it’s not the first time I have heard this type of music paired with the almost fever-dream-ish aesthetic, it still feels like a breath of fresh air between so many sewerslvt copycats around. I will be listening to the rest of this really talented artist's discography, and you should too!