Anodyne - We Decode The Future

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  • It's rare that the future turns out as we had imagined. Colin McCloughley, AKA Anodyne, has been around for almost 20 years now. It's roughly that far back from which We Decode the Future departs. Pieces of piano rave and hardcore techno, and tonnes of breakbeat electro, are the materials from which it's formed. It's the kind of caustic electro that Satamile records or Decal, among others, once released, and although the production sheen is easily up to today's standards, it's a style that feels well covered. McCloughley seems unconcerned with this, though, or with the usual fetishizing of history either. Instead, it feels like it was made in the '90s to exist ahead of its age, looking forward into some possible technological dystopia. Terminator is hardly modern, but great for what it is. We Decode is something like the same thing. The title track, which is the most expansively structured track and the quaking core of the EP, has early signatures of the darker, more paranoid corners of '90s warehouses. Obvious futurisms then take over completely: gasping computer voices, morose synth swells, and one of the most efficient and unrelenting barrages of electronic drums that you're maybe likely to hear ever, never mind this year. In fact, all of this is brick shithouse tech of the highest order; the kind of stuff where listening to it is about as soothing as getting your brain drilled. If you like the sound of that, then I recommend that you buy this immediately. It's not just that it's tougher than Robocop's Nan from Essex, which it is. It's that it's engineered so precisely. The snares are edged with steel, and the kicks feel like they're battering you in the face 20 times a second. All of it's wreathed in an acrid cloud of morbid pads, through which the hits cut like a serrated edge. "Reactor IV" is globular proto-funk, "Mr Nightmare" is snarling 'ardcore that sounds like it's named, and "Bs-6" is arrogant and ebullient. McCloughley never falters, though. His years of experience, as well as his methods—centred as they are on computer programming and circuit bending—are always felt acutely.
  • Tracklist
      01. Into the Unknown 02. Bs-6 03. We Decode the Future (5853) 04. Reactor IV 05. Mr Nightmare
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