Underwater Escape From The Black Hole - Precognition
(Hacktivism 2016)
For an EP that swaps genres more often that it changes chords, Precognition is an intensely focused effort: a dense mass of powdery ambience that seems to comprise the whole gamut of futurist dream-pop aesthetics, sometimes dystopian, sometimes hopeful. UEFTBH opens the tape with a 3 minute venture into Animal Collective's neo-tribalist vision, pressing a thin, absorbent layer of foamy synthesizer against a puddle of spilled reverb - "Highway" is painted the bruised purple that forms beneath applied pressure on a Tamagotchi's LCD screen, a warbling wilderness of 8-bit chirps and silicone foliage. It's one part "My Girls", one part Music For Airports. "Begin" builds its brutalist structure upon a foundation vocal loop reminiscent of vaporwave's Gregorian epimone, its robotic imperative draped in feathery black metal guitaristy and trip-hop percussion.
One can even recognize the sort of neo-retro timbres employed by Com Truise on standout cut "Altered Landscape", slamming Chapterhouse-esque shoegazery against a textureless PVC pipe bassline. Precognition lies somewhere between a late 80s sci-fi movie's intro music and its chase scene score - it's as soothing as it is energizing, as spacious as it is oppressive.
