Mama Matrix Most Mysterious

Type return with Andrea Taeggi's probing and propulsive modular session 'Mama Matrix Most Mysterious', recorded on the Buchla and Serge systems at Sweden's EMS facility. Marking a considered step away from the rugged tonalities of Taeggi's solo work as Gondwana, or in the Lumisokea duo with Koenraad Ecker, the Italian artist gets to grips with EMS' coveted gear across six tense and icy transmissions clearly in thrall to the machines' capacity for making unique timbres and rhythms. Working with such archaic - if seminal - contraptions, Taeggi had to "adapt" to the systems rather than mastering them; so, in effect, you're hearing an artist channelling and harnessing energy, as opposed to creating it - putting himself at the service of the machine, and not the other way around (maybe they'll even let us play with synths in the human zoos of the future?). The result is a brace of writhing, scratchy and booming abstractions working along the electro-techno spectrum from the swanging syncopation of the title track to the insectoid clave of 'Merry Go Raum' and 'Hiraeth' on the A-side, thru to Pan Sonic-like bleep dimensions with 'Berdreymin' and much cuter, frothing chimes and knotted sub-bass pulses in 'Silicon Consciousness' on the other side. By-passing trends in favour of something purer, Taeggi has just pulled out a vital addition to this year's wave of modular experiments, finding a killer balance of percussive gratification and spaced-out headiness.