Replete with eerie ambiances and unrelenting bass hits, “Winter Mute” is a techno meditation on the effects of isolation, fear, and despair on art.
Russian-born and NYC-based DJ/Producer Julia Govor released on her label JUJUKA the long-awaited “Winter Mute,” for which the artist openly credits the cyberpunk novel “Neuromancer” as its creative impetus. A Bandcamp blurb explains that “each page helped to truly carry [her] through the kaleidoscopic events that she was deprived of due to the global pandemic.”
Replete with eerie ambiances and unrelenting bass hits, “Winter Mute” is a techno meditation on the effects of isolation, fear, and despair on art. The deliberate stiffness of marching bass drums in “Winter Mute” instills paranoia. Syncopated hats and a distorted, predatory bassline add to a general uneasiness. A witchy incantation floats in the ether, chanting in Russian “Hateful autumn…And something comes out with the first rain.” The bass kicks continue numbly, out of touch with the lyrical phrase like footsteps of naive frontline soldiers who’re clearly outflanked, ignorant of the nefarious odds stacked against them.
The third track “Awake,” strikes with subtle brutality. Heavy with reverb, the track begins with a whirring acid bass, heavy bass drums, and an insipid, woody percussion sound echoing across the bar. Govor draws from one of Tarkovsky’s bleakest films, “Ivan’s Childhood,” and samples from a startling scene of sexual aggression in which a lieutenant suspends an army nurse over a ditch in order to forcibly kiss her– it is also considered an iconic shot in film history. Govor samples their wispy dialogue in the track’s ambient break, intensifying the nurse’s response to the lieutenant’s requests, “Why? How come?”
“Drama C” and “Icebreaker” are tracks that feel frigid. Mid-frequency textures are muted, muddying the tracks slightly. The repetition of high and low-frequency percussion hits inject loneliness and abjection into the mood. Drama C’s sci-fi melody melts into phantom vocalizations. A firmer bass beat emerges briefly, like a glacier being disturbed by the terrain in shallow waters, only to become submerged again.
These four terse tracks from Julia Govor challenges us with sophisticated dance rhythms that are just waiting to be mixed in minutes before peak hours– they are excellent for building anticipation. They are also made for the nights we courageously tap into our feelings of solitude and unforgivable loss– and accept the ingenuity that seeps from our unattended wounds.
-Lina Xing
Link: Bandcamp
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