ZOE MCPHERSON Vinyl & CDs

Review: Zoe McPherson's Pitch Blender is something of a mind-bender to say the least. As ever, it fuses crossrhythms with avant-garde soundzones, this time for what might be describable as the bleakest exploration of her sound yet. Adhering to the synthesist and live artist's usual commitment to dance music without a predictable pulse, McPherson's sound is increasingly ethereal and gritty at the same time, pads, vocals and cruds combining to form an elegant haze. This album is certainly not for the faint of heart, as we're plunged into ultra-compressed, limitless walls of rhythmic noise from the jump, with tracks from 'On Fire' to 'Unidentified Objects' instantly matter-beaming us to an alternate hell of dissociative samples and audio-magick. That shouldn't deter the best kind of listener though, and ultimately, the only kind of listener McPherson is interested in; the curious, fearless kind.