Entrancer - Rit

 

Released: February 14

A sprawling album filled with all sorts of rhythmic creations, Rit is particularly interesting in the way it tiptoes down the thing divining line between experimental noise and straight techno. And it really goes back and forth between these two things, with some tracks like “Moss” being minimalist techno bops with just a wave of noise coming in at the end and other like “Aural Install” coming out of the gate with heavy and discordant noises that have a thin underlayment of rhythm in the chaos. This back and forth makes things a little hard to categorize but the best way to look at it is as a series of highly variable and experimental rhythms that may or may not be the most tightly wound. 

There were a a number of moments that I particularly enjoyed on the album, like the two tracks named earlier here. But “Fractal Mask” was another one that struck me with its rapid fire rhythm that has an almost tribal type of quality. It feels frenetic but the structure of the rhythm never really falls apart and the percussion in clean and tight. there’s also this hypnotic effect in the bass line as it energetically groans on in the track. “Colony Material” was a particularly interesting one as well with its incredibly minimalistic feel and crunchy percussion sounds. It’s got a lo-fi kind of aesthetic to it and feels very raw compared to the other tracks around it while trailing perfectly into the next track with its noises. 

The album as a whole is a great example of what kind of complex compositions can come from a minimalist approach. While I definitely preferred the noisier and less structured tracks on the album, the hypnotic rhythms present in the more techno-oriented tracks still caught my ear and pulled me in. It certainly didn’t hurt that Entrancer picked some genuinely weird and quirky sounds to put all this together with.