One of the highlights of London techno producer Daniel Avery’s early 2018 album Songs for Alpha was the industrially-tinged ‘Diminuendo’, a hard-hitting track admittedly lost amongst the ambience Songs for Alpha sought to create. Evidently the track, a highlight of the album in Avery’s mind, merited a follow-up EP centred around it. With ‘Diminuendo’ as the focal point and not smothered in ambience, Avery uses it to set the tone and create an altogether more enthralling experience.
Given the comparative shortness of this EP with its 5 tracks (one of which is a 4-minute version of the title), Avery could reasonably be expected to shy away from his usual ambient focus and create something with greater immediate impact. The standout track ‘Hyper Detail’ does this perfectly, an acid techno masterpiece that again would not have been done justice alongside Songs for Alpha’s focus on atmosphere. The squelchy synths and cacophonous kickdrum create an all-encompassing sound fit for club or otherwise. When the extra synth gets added and the squelchy sound seems to grow even more distorted, the song seems ready to spiral out of control before the hi hats bring it down.
‘Light of Falling Rain’ is another track from Avery’s favoured domain of industrial techno with synths creating an alarm-like sound and the noise of the hi hats creating a sensory attack that Songs for Alpha could not have supported. ‘Time Marked Its Irregular Pulse In Her Eyes’ is the only track here that could not feasibly see club play and was perhaps the EP’s only real foray into ambience, a track entirely composed of distorted vocals serving to wind down the intensity established by the previous three tracks.
Despite essentially being B-sides composed of a standout from Songs for Alpha and three tracks that could support it but not the wider album, the tracks on this EP deserved the light of day. The real thing to take away from this work is the versatility of Avery. The fact that the title track has been used on two different works with two different atmospheres and even to two different effects is indicative of Avery’s ability to craft seemingly any soundscape he wishes.
Image: nightlifejam via flickr