- I don't know if there's a name for this phenomenon, but I've often noticed that when you play cheap or old electronic gear distorted, it can convey the feeling of a powerful force, like a sound that is actually too loud to be recorded properly, and that is possibly causing permanent damage to the recording equipment. The second track on Savas Pascalidis' latest EP, Low End Experience, offers an awesomely lo-fi crash that exemplifies this feeling—an ultra-noisy pssssshhhtt that sounds like the drum machine is about to break.
On the four tracks here Savas spins dirty, acidic and jackin' house that stays closely attuned to that singular edginess of analog gear, and the mixture of fear and delight that emerges from the sense that when you play analog, things can get hairy, or nasty, or spin out of control altogether. It's a reminder that getting old gear up and running and connected can make you feel a bit like Doctor Frankenstein yelling "it's alllliiivvve!" when the monster first sits upright—a sentiment hard to come by when you're working with VST plug-ins.
Interceptor is a much more stripped-down affair than Nuclear Rawmance, Savas' last full-length also for his own Sweatshop imprint. Melodies and mood have largely been discarded, leaving a bare-bones palette that comes off as classic rather than retro. The title track rides the acid in a long and deep way—not so much in-your-face squelch as drawn-out and sometimes abstracted down to the faintest white noise wisp. "Urania" is about as stripped as you're gonna get, with only a big steely hi-hat and a whirling synthesizer that sounds like something from a NASA recording of outer space. "Street Beat" is the most organic feeling track here, and that's because it's got a conga drum loop—then there's the acidic synth again, tweaked expressively, now flashing in the dark, now disappearing again behind a curtain—always with a gentlemanly sense of decorum.
Tracklist A1 Interceptor
A2 Low End Experience
B1 Urania
B2 Street Beat