- At the start of the year, I mentioned electro's recent resurgence and hoped that more artists would "go nuts" and broaden the genre's palate. Right now, Galaxian is one such artist. He doesn't deviate too much from the sound's usual sci-fi moods, but the boldness and curiosity of his music stands out. On "Ouroboros," a track on this EP for the new Berlin label Foul-Up, he cranks the levels up on everything and goes for it. It's a super-charged, 150 BPM-plus cut with screeching effects and an incredible breakdown where you can hear him goofing around with the knobs.
Roughly half of Blowback's tracks don't have beats, but the wild moods persist. "Truth Seizure" is a polyrhythmic mess of synths with crazy delay settings. On "Parasitic Seduction," he creates a smouldering skid mark of sound that could have come from the studio of Shapednoise. And even on the short, ostensibly softer interludes ("A Grand Delusion" and "Coercion") there's a razor-sharpness to Galaxian's gestures.
Along with "Ouroboros," "Tunnel Vision" is the best of the club tracks. Early on, a gorgeous wash of pads softens the drums' attack, but by the track's midpoint all bets are off—it's the sort of thing a DJ like Objekt would cunningly deploy at the end of a peak-time set. The straighter "Forget About It" and "Blowback" aren't quite as distinctive but are worth considering if you're digging for more standard electro. Between this EP and the recent Dosing The Population, Galaxian has shown that he's currently among electro's most inspired producers.
TracklistA1 Truth Seizure
A2 Parasitic Seduction
A3 Forget About It
A4 Ouroboros
B1 Coercion
B2 Tunnel Vision
B3 Blowback
B4 A Grand Delusion