- The long-dormant Micron Audio label returns with an EP of dark and claustrophobic electro.
- Molecular Level Solutions relaunches DJ Stingray 313's long-dormant Micron Audio label. Originally meant to release the Detroit artist's own music, the outlet began in 2011 with his Electronic Countermeasures EP before going dark. Now he plans to widen the remit, with eagerly anticipated reissues alongside music from new or lesser-known artists who work under the banner of futuristic electro.
But first a new EP from the man himself. All of Stingray's idiosyncrasies and inspirations are here, with the usual themes of technological advances, video games and science fiction. Over the past decade, he has phased out the bouncier elements of his music, giving way to a harsher, granular sound, as heard on 2011's Countermeasures EP or the soon-to-be-reissued F.T.N.W.O. album. This EP continues along that path, with dark techno and electro that, aside from a series of intermittent gasps in the track "Construction Materials From Organic Waste," seems to reject humanity entirely, reveling in the slams, wheezes and rhythms of a factory assembly line.
Stingray generates an uneasy sense of urgency and underlying alarm, with opener "Bioplastics" drawing in the listener through its clacking rhythms and squelchy, layered synths. The textures are both rough and crystalline, with "Carbon Neutral Fuels," a focal point of the release, featuring detailed sound design and arrangements that are almost neurotically tight. And the metallic "Construction Materials From Organic Waste," with its industrial, almost siren-like cadence, inspires a feeling of closing in and claustrophobia. It's a more-than-fitting soundtrack to the ticking-time-bomb of an era that we live in.
Tracklist01. Bioplastics
02. Construction Materials From Organic Waste
03. Carbon Neutral Fuels
04. Enzymatic Detergents