- Lebanese noisemaker Morphosis prefers fringe dance floors, operating at the cross-section of unfettered noise and traditional techno. Dismantle is his live score of French-German horror classic Dreyer's Vampyr. It's a thunderous EP of far-out experiments defined by psychedelic degradation, circuitous noise and rhythmic devolution.
The pulse at the center of "Dismantle," a collaboration with Donato Dozzy, is evasive and mechanical, with a wheezing thump stretched alongside pinched ragtime piano. It exemplifies Morphosis' ability to craft tracks where his machines seem to be either just warming up or finally shutting down, and capitalizing on the uncertainty of what you're hearing. "Tamrat Version" sends hollow kicks floating with the rest of the tweaked elements, while sobbing organs and curlicues of feedback recall Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music.
The "Music For Vampyr" suite is the EP's centrepiece. It shows Morphosis' devotion to improvisation creating both moments of cohesion and the occasional sense of noodling. "Arrival," "Shadows," and "Finale" are slippery if you're tracking the fuzzy arpeggios, but they retain a sense of organization when you follow the ebb and flow of mission-control blips, drones and alien chatter that make up the percussive backbone. "Arrival" is swallowed halfway through its 15-minute length by compressed suction until an organ breaks through, while the sputtering kick and theatrical drone in "Shadows" take the track from placid waters to magma."Finale" drops pianos on top of the EP's cleanest arpeggio for a bombastic and relentless ending that feels a little obvious compared to the jazzy labyrinths you've just wandered through. All three tracks are crude but they have a kind of feral unpredictability that establishes Dismantle as some of Morphosis' best work.
TracklistA Dismantle feat. Donato Dozzy
B Tamrat Version
C Arrival
D1 Shadow
D2 Finale