- Opal Tapes is something of a powerhouse for artists who work in craggy strains of house and techno, with releases by Prostitutes, Wanda Group and Shapednoise. Though the Metrics EP is less dance floor-oriented than anything from those artists, Yves de Mey shares their knack for endowing noisy tape pieces with fragile beauty.
When he's at his most techno, Yves de Mey bears comparison to Shapednoise and Samuel Kerridge. The sludgy drones and petrified kick drums on "Box Calsson" are buried in murk. "Metrics" mounts slowly into an ominous, hissing cacophony, like techno that's decaying from within. But Metrics' ambient moments are even more haunting. Crackled electronics fizz and sputter within caverns of space on the dubby "Eye Splice," and the alien twangs that pierce "Cessation"'s mulch of low drones are terrifically eerie.
TracklistA1 Box Caisson
A2 Metrics
B1 Eye Splice
B2 Cessation