COH

Ivan Pavlov has long been a digital innovator who bridged gaps between early industrial (Throbbing Gristle, Coil) and contemporary electronic composition (Richard Chartier). Iiron (a sequel of sorts to his IRON album, released on Wavetrap in 2000) excavates elements from his earliest recorded history, specifically guitar tracks he'd put to cassette during his early period in '80s Soviet-era Russia. Supplemented with new guitar recordings from 2009, the bit-crushed metallic results succeed in signifying the compressed creativity from an era where underground music was truly a subversive act. The six-string attack is reduced to its barbed tips, slicing across the clean beatscape framing the pieces. Attention to claustrophobic martial repetition is definitely paid. Those expecting the miasma of tone and frequency native to the metal experiments of Pita or Kevin Drumm may be disappointed. But Ryoji Ikeda fans with an appetite for a little scree wedged into the zeroes and ones will be chuffed.