Substak - Dark Horizon Call

 Released: May 2

Over the last couple of months, Athens-based electronic artist Substak has been on quite a roll with multiple releases across a number of labels including See Blue, Drama Recorder, and insectorama. Here now, on this latest on Illuminated Paths, he takes us on a dark and droning journey through seven strange soundscapes in Dark Horizon Call. The textures present on each track vary wildly but maintain a rather gloomy and foreboding atmosphere, no chill vibes here. Some sound definitively more aggressive than others with “The Last Signal Fade” being one of my personal favorites here. This particular track has a very subtle vibe at first but as the tonal elements of the track begin to shift, it goes from a gentle beep-like tone to a loud and twisting sonic weapon. The evolution there is quite lovely as it goes from soft to noisy over a well-managed amount of time. 

Many of the tracks here come across as a bit more static than others as well. For the dynamism of “The Last Signal Fade,” there is the low intensity simmering of “Astral Ran” right after. It’s an enjoyable bit of sound as I can distinctly hear the essence of heavy rain, but it has been amplified beyond its normal bounds. It feels like the rain is just huge in comparison to myself, as if I were a much smaller animal than I am as I seek cover from the storm. The album closes out with “Extinction,” which I felt was a great way to close as it seems to combines that more static drone elements with that dynamic sense found elsewhere in the album. It is predominately static and drone, but it also takes both those and sweeps them into a slow oscillation that pulls all the elements into a long pulse, excepting the low frequencies which are swept into their own indiscernible rhythm. It all makes for a rather compelling listen given the unexpected swooshes, swishes, and whatnot that inject a level of enjoyable uncertainty into each dark landscape.