EXHAUSTED MODERN Vinyl & CDs

Review: Menacing EBM and dark synth billows from a Netherlands hinterland; our heralds speak of an esoteric encampment by the name of Espectro Oculto, said to be the remote incantators of an unstoppable curse in sound. Six shadowy emissaries have been sent to spread the pestilence; Trenton Chase, Martial Canterel, DJ Nephil, Exhausted Modern, Fragedis and Happy707. Clearly, the faction have recruited only the best, trusted and yet most nefarious of spies from as far-flung regions as Czechia and Argentina in the administering of such a sordid sonic plague. We're left most quivery at the centrifugal doom drones of Exhausted Modern's 'Fear Of Focus', across whose breakdown banshees are heard wailing and snarling, and Fragedis' 'Landing In Reality', a lo-fi techno freakout and sonochemical anomaly, channeling militant two-way radio samples and hellish FM synthesis.

Review: Downtempo dystopi-techno from London's brokntoys, who've been going since 2013. The six tracks contained on this EP by Exhausted Modern scour every depth of the frequency spectrum, producing a cosmic affair that challenges our presumptions about cause-and-effect itself (hence the title 'Notions Of Causality', perhaps). For example, 'Raised From Awareness' is a trans-perceptive chugger which cycles through phasey dubby drums and weird paradigmatic zones, while 'Noosphere' brings atmospherics to the abstract, sonically describing the biospheric plane of human reason.