Zenopede – Architect of Ruin
Zenopede operate in a sphere similar to Scorn or other Dark Dub projects, it’s not a genre I am a huge fan of, but have started to appreciate some of it when it’s done with a real sense of darkness, and Zenopede has nailed that element on this release. There are only five tracks here, but the meld heavy dub and hip hop style beats with a bit of distortion and a lot of dark cinematic atmosphere. A nice sense of layering, accent and careful melody give the cuts a lot of body and movement even though the beats remain relatively unchanging. From a more abrupt active track like “Lo Tech Brood” to the much subtler, less beat driven “Worst Case Dementia” they have mixed up the feel a lot, and hog-tied my biggest problem with this type of music which is the inane redundancy so much of it has. Their beats are processed and effected more often than not, so you are not just getting straight beats, and that’s another thing I really appreciate about what Zenopede is doing. It has as much dark ambient and subtle noise to it as it does beats, if not more. Rather than the textures simply providing background texture to fill the holes in the beats they are a major part of the tracks. The disc ends with probably my favorite of the lot, “Bitter Hope.” along with “Scare Tactic.” There is a snarled, boiling creepiness at the foundation, with simple synth tones providing melody atop that… strings are plucked deep in the mix and there is only a slight percussive presence, but the track is full of atmosphere. I really like this one, certainly more than I would have thought, and while I haven’t heard a lot in this field, this is easily among my favorites because of it’s willingness to do different things and not rely on the beat to be enough, they build a complete atmosphere around it. “Architect of Ruin” is a CDR, and comes with some pretty sharp packaging to boot. – Scott
ZENOPEDE
4 Brynmill Terrace
Brynmill, Swansea SA2 0BA
UK
http://www.zenopede.demon.co.uk/
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