Mordant Music - Post-MorteM / ModeM (2012)

The redoubtable Mordant Music return to the audio unconscious on Friday June 8th with this sterling brand new 12" and digital download. The good Baron's last full length transmission SyMptoMs was way back in 2009 and other than a few compilation inclusions and a beautifully pastoral turn on the third instalment of Ghost Box records essential Study Series, all has been relatively quiet.

Until earlier this week that is, as on Sunday June 3rd I received an email titled simply "MM053..." which gave release details for this two-tracker. In typical Mordant anti-prose, the linked press release offers the following statement by way of explanation;

"Skeletal shards of static tropes spew from the Pro-One as dead prog druMMers join the dots with heroic trills...an infrasound-tinged intervention provides a non-dropsy intermission bass binge... a Graf Spee of a tune, long-scuttled in the woofers... MMahler."

But what does this all mean?

Post-MorteM begins with an almost militaristic shuffle which is gradually interrupted by bursts of sonic detritus swathed in grimy reverberation and huge, rolling drum fills. The track then becomes opaque with quivering electronic modulations, found sounds and a variety of musique concrète ephemera. After around five minutes or so, the sound of grainy footsteps come to the fore as a tone generator threatens to loosen your fillings. The final minute is taken up by distant, tortured screams before a final death rattle of electronics issues forth. ModeM retreats further into the echo chamber and forges a series of raw, metallic shapes against a scree of wilfully unhinged oscillations. These are two genuinely compelling pieces that masterfully combine Mordant's keen ear for texture with the more experimental bent of his psychogeographical ruminations in the Travelogues series.

This is without doubt, utterly essential listening as is anything issued so far on this indispensable imprint. I can only hope that a follow up to SyMptoMs is close at hand and, if these two tracks are to be taken as any mind of indicator as to where Mordant Music is right now, then let me be the first to say; Welcome back Baron!

Visit the website for more details of current and forthcoming releases and order the vinyl or digital download directly from the online store.

'Post-MorteM' taken from the Post-MorteM / ModeM 12" and digital download (2012);