CYLOB
Late In The Day
CSR005M
Cylob Industries 2008
06 Tracks. 21mins57secs
Format: Digital

It’s a common criticism labeled at electronic music, that sounds produced by machines sound too clean and inhuman. Often enough, of course, that’s part of the point, but beyond that, one could counter, no machine is perfect. Picking up and exploiting the weaknesses of electronic instruments is a full-fledged phenomenon, be it in circuit bending toy instruments, removing the batteries from a sequencer and using a memory crash to create new sequences, or coding your entire setup from scratch like Chris Jeffs (known on stage and record as Cylob) does. Representing this labor of intense, creative love, Cylob’s music, whether more toward the electro or ambient end of the spectrum, has always retained a unique and imperfect aura.

Late In The Day, the latest EP release from Cylob, is the sound of passively violent degradation. Almost every synthesized sound here is detuned to some extent, while the percussion loops sound perpetually ready to disintegrate into bits. The title track starts the EP off in fine form, as a melancholy ambient pad is quickly overtaken by a tweaked-out acid line. This structure plugs along the remainder of the track, joined by various other saw-heaves synths and backed by a simple bass drum, with resonant filter-tweaks on the acid line filling in for hi-end percussion.

After two more tracks in a similar vein, Cylob unleashes Swampy (Lengthened), in which layers of aggressive synths and bubbling squelches duel over a collision of noise waves, before dissolving into a lo-fi percussion workout halfway through. It’s the most exhilarating piece here, and Cylob’s ability to make such aggressive dissonance sound oddly harmonic speaks to his strengths as a composer. It wouldn’t really be a Cylob release without some robotic near-vocals, present here in the formant-filtered sounds of Get A Taste (Weakly Non-Linear Mutual Attraction Mix) and Face Something, the former possessing the catchiest melody on the release.

The onslaught wrought by Late In The Day can be grating at times. Closer Temple Clap aims for percussive ambience, but ends up overstaying its welcome a bit. The same could be said about Grasshopper Lies Heavy, bearing an acid line that fails to really stick, and sounds particularly in a rut after the two similar sounding (and much better) tracks preceding it. Still, these are minor complaints, and an aural expression of fatigue and decay, Late In The Day works well.

3.5/5

Cylob | Cylob Industries