Close to a year after its Blasted-fathered, inaugural first EP, Depth.Request operators reveal that the London-based imprint is far from being dead in a cradle and has a pair of legitimately attention-commanding names presented on the sleeve of its sophomore record as a matter of fact: with a career spanning well over a decade, Osaka’s reliable warehouse demolitioner Ryuji Takeuchi needs little in terms of introduction and really so does A1 remix-assigned Swarm Intelligence, whose designer creations are known to provoke thought and action at even degree.
Phenomenon Of Combination starts off with Noctambulism, an anxious-to-get-to-it opener whose 6 kicks a tact work nicely to perceivably speed up its tempo of 132 and aren’t halting for bit as the distorted acidic sequence, spinning hats and tides of noise gradually show up to do what reaching crude oil connection would to a wildfire already raging.
As percussion in a revised 136-BPM version is approached differently and with more emphasis applied, the signatures remain uneven—as is often the case with Swarm Intel’s offbeat and off-the-wall production; that aside, the roaring digital grinding and vertiginously panning mid-section drones add sinister colors to Takeuchi’s metaphorical picture which wasn’t exactly evoking green pastures and still waters to begin with.
While brought down to 124 a minute, one probably wouldn’t want Somnambulism running much faster anyway with a somewhat convoluted drum programming that is involved; a steady rise of distortion and gain of its fluctuating acid bassline also proves to provide enough fortitude to make up for the mid-range tempo and slowly but surely fills up every patch of the spectrum with acute aural intensity.
Definitively exhausting the synonyms for this titularly addressed brand of parasomnia, Sleepwalking brings the release to closure through diligently whanging 4x4s alongside a condensing arrangement of 16x16s, paced at 137 and supported in their plight by faintly striking claps with light hats peaking from behind the perpetuating pattern of a deranged acid wall that undoubtedly does to psyche something akin to subtly stirring the sanity meter towards E while drilling a hole in tank to eliminate the possibility of a refill.
Maddening in all good senses, second adoptee of Depth.Request is a four-pack of tools forget to inflict hard damage, best recommended to those that regard their local factory-made-a-venue as weekend retreat.
– rhetor