As can be expected from any release on Bill Kouligas' PAN imprint, Piteous Gate — the debut full-length from Berlin-based producer James Whipple — completely obliterates and re-constructs what can be expected from an electronic music release. Beats flourish with fractal geometry, cross paths with other sonic elements, only to be tugged from whatever path they were on to ultimately vanish shockingly. Electronic creaks, oblique stringed instrument structures, the slicing of a sword through fruit and other sinister ingredients ratchet up the tension here, until explosion feels imminent.
This tautness is somehow maintained as each piece of music flows into the next, ultimately only evaporating as "Azov Seepage," the closing track, disappears from earshot. Whipple's previous PAN release, the Scythians EP, hinted at the greatness to come from this Janus club night co-founder, yet was a little too short to really demonstrate his true power. It took a full-length release to truly suss out the immensity of M.E.S.H.
(Pan)This tautness is somehow maintained as each piece of music flows into the next, ultimately only evaporating as "Azov Seepage," the closing track, disappears from earshot. Whipple's previous PAN release, the Scythians EP, hinted at the greatness to come from this Janus club night co-founder, yet was a little too short to really demonstrate his true power. It took a full-length release to truly suss out the immensity of M.E.S.H.