Cyclic Defrost review of Passage
review originally posted here.
While they’re still best known to their respective mothers as Marty Frank and Zak Roberts, Abelcain and Cdatakill have both reached a point where they’re considered ‘veterans’ of the US breakcore scene, having released impressive backcatalogues through labels such as Sublight and Low Res. This shared album release ‘Passage’ on Ad Noiseam follows in the wake of Abelcain and Cdatakill’s collaborative ‘Bleeding Hearts’ 12” series of 2007, and collects together tracks from the duo’s 2002 collaborative release ‘Six Stigmata’ on Zhark International, alongside their remix ‘vs.’ EP ‘Playing With Knives’ on Low Res of the same year, and a further four previously unreleased contemporary remixes. While other recent breakcore-oriented releases on Ad Noiseam by The Teknoist and Sickboy have focussed upon the ‘cartoon’ aspects of the genre via tongue-in-cheek sampling, as this sprawling 70 minute collection illustrates, Abelcain & Cdatakill both cast a distinctly more dry and dystopian slant on proceedings.
In truth there’s precious little ‘light’ to be found here. Abelcain’s opening ‘Kissing Ice’ gives good indication as to the sort of ferocious aesthetic that predominates here, fusing fussilades of distorted trashcan junglist breakbeats with cascades of eerie minor-key piano trills in a manner that calls to mind a seriously pissed-off Squarepusher, while ‘The Dream People Call Human Life’ matches storms of drill and bass Amen breaks with ominous choir samples and fragments of off-key orchestration. Indeed, it’s no real surprise to find out that Abelcain’s previously released unofficial remixes of Skinny Puppy, as it’s that outfit’s fusion of the furiously percussive and distorted with moments of unexpected sonic beauty that’s perhaps most frequently called to mind here. Elsewhere, sidetrips into yawning dark ambience and vast industrial samples on tracks such as ‘Canto V’ and ‘Isabella’ manage to be equally, if not more terrifying and foreboding than their more bpm-loaded counterpoints, simply because they hint at so much understated darkness. As for the four new tracks, they manage to provide another impressive bonus into the bargain, with tracks such as ‘Raining Glass’ even revealing the influence of hiphop in their midtempo breakdown sections. While the unrelenting nature of this expansive collection may prove too much for some listeners in its entirety, on the whole ‘Passage’ impresses.
