Data Breaker

C ylob (English producer Chris Jeffs) has been one of
Rephlex Records‘ flagship artists for nearly 15 years. Which
means that among IDM heads, he’s attained a godhead status. You may
like him, too.

What makes Cylob’s productions stand out from the teeming IDM
geekosphere? It’s a combination of incredibly strange textures,
manically funky rhythms, and a wacky sense of humor that usually
doesn’t annoy (his attempts at throwback electro, replete with Stephen
Hawking throat-box vocals, however, smack of broad parody). Cylob’s
more recent works hone the sublimely quirky electro he cultivated in
the ’90s into less manic but no less scintillating listening
experiences, even if I will miss the lubricious likes of “Smack ‘Em Up
Sharp” and “Cum to Me Baby.”

There’s a weird android sentimentality also running through some of
Cylob’s later tracks, although “I Want to See You Naked,” while
delightful, is not nearly as sexy as a song thus titled ought to be.
But on gems like “Rock the Trojan Fader” and “Late in the Day,” Cylob
proves how slightly-off rhythms and decidedly wonky melodies can sound
so right.

Bonkers! promoter Ian Scot Price, who’s bringing Cylob to
Seattle, notes that Cylob will be DJing here, “but usually over half of
what happens in his sets is entirely original and performed in one or
another abstract creative form.”

Billmate Hecate (aka Rachael Kozak) says her music
sounds like “the opening of a portal to the unspeakable void of
existence.” No hyperbole. She began her career as a breakcore producer
with an emphasis on sexuality; the tracks on her collaborative album
Nymphomatriarch derive from the sounds of her sexual encounters
with Venetian Snares during their 2003 tour.

Now Hecate is a mistress of tenebrous ambience that blossoms
hideously into an electronic strain of black metal. On top of this,
Hecate sings in a voice that makes you think she chews armor for kicks.
If her music could assume human form, it would be a dominatrix.

Dominating in another way, local label From 0-1’s The
Black White Vol. 02 is a fantastic follow-up to the imprint’s
pummeling debut comp. Led by Wisconsin transplants Milkplant and
Sone (aka Uncommon Forms), From 0-1 again gathers several
Northwest artists (and Estonia’s Mik Nevel) who foster the evolution of
slamming, cerebral techno.

The Black White Vol. 02 contains 11 tracks that could offer
any big-room techno DJ sustenance for months. Label potentates
Milkplant and Sone deliver throbbing, maximal bangers, but some of the
artists veer into darker, more subliminal areas of the techno spectrum
while keeping things un-superclub-friendly. The whole thing’s tight,
but Nerd Revolt, Indispensable Villains, Justin
Byrnes, and Milkplant shine especially bright. You can obtain this
comp at www.dbtrx.com, www.juno.co.uk, and www.from0-1.com.