In what seems like one of the best match ups in 2021, Jeroen Search has just come out on one of the leading labels of this new decade, Token Records. Aether EP is a release that even the Baron himself Dave Clarke acknowledged as a “winning combo.” Jeroen Search (Jeroen Schrijvershof) has had an epic career from way back in the day, collaborating with Misjah as Groovehead and releasing mind-breaking Dutch rave anthems such as “Trippin’ Out.“
If you’re familiar with his recent output, it seems Jeroen Search has turned his attention to stripped-down and focused hypnotic techno. Which has him releasing strong solo work with an emphasis on playing with the idea of slow moving stroboscopic repeating phrases as the man’s main cup of tea. An idea which has been seen with similar concepts in other releases, such as his 2017 EP on Warm Up Recordings, “Presentism.”. Other tracks off the Figure SPC T EP seem to highlight an initial flirtation with the hypnotic in-your-face synth concept which seems to have him pulling away from his earlier dub techno soundscapes and evolving into his current style. With this release, he takes his signature style and melds it into a very bold, dissociative and hypnotic concept to a point where you might not know which way is up.
First track in the release is “Nightshade” and immediately you are confronted with the main stroboscopic synth idea which you can choose to focus on or ignore, but it’s definitely there: compressed, focused onto the corners of your eyes, slowly filtering its way into your face. It harkens back to older bleepy techno and even his most recent work.
But what makes ‘the bleep’ Jeroen’s own here, and what evolves the idea, is testing out what ‘cards’ to show you in the hypnotic synth line.. be it spatial tricks, lush reverb (or sudden lack there of), or matching it with gritty rezzy background synths, it changes methodically all while presenting the synth unflinchingly, and while constantly blending it with a very steady and restrained 909 pattern. A pattern where the 909 rides are merely there to create that tension and occasionally distract you from what may come next. Half way through all of this, you suddenly realize you might totally have been lost in the hypnosis, lost track of time, trying to make sense of these ideas presented to you. What was that just then, where are we now? What /is/ this madness? The DJs out there will realize they are gonna be having a cleanup with the dancers at 4am with this track, as it’s the perfect fit for that ‘lost and found’ part of the night.
Second track in on the A side here is, “Zero Day” which has a similar theme to “Night Shade”, tying in the idea of this incessant insisting arpeggio pattern.. only this time drilling into the upper right corner of your skull, but having it float over this padded soundscape and our now familiar 909 calmly keeping time, but also referencing that stroboscopic Chicago hard house layered clap and kick combination. The track keeps this kind of deep penetrating ‘one red lightbulb only’ vibe while taking you into this landscape where you seemingly cannot avoid submission to the massive and disassociating synth over you.
Track three, the title track “Aether” is seen here locking it in, concept wise, along with the other tracks on the EP, featuring the ever present arpeggio synth lines. This time around they have a noodly modular vibe to them but the progression of the arpeggio definitely has a more selected jazzy Detroit Techno swing to it while contrasting the minimally treated TR 909. The 909 here is playing a different role, instead of subdued time keeper, it informs a more fluid direction like water running from a faucet and really pushes the pace of the track quickly forward while the arpeggio matches and ebbs with the 909’s intensity.
Last track up here “Rejection Rate” has us coming back to earth. The other tracks in this EP might have been a serious treatise on playing with your brain right off the bat, but this one immediately starts off with you saying.. ‘oh thank god I’m home’ and gets you back into familiar territory with a good old sinister baseline groove stripped down drum track and, “chords! Yes chords!” You say to yourself happily, but all is not right in Sherwood.. Since Schrijvershof didn’t let you off easily in this whole EP, he’s certainly not going to let up now.. the chords start off benign and then start to create a dissonant blend to the triad and yes, it’s the kind of dissonance that would make your music teacher punch through a wall. But that’s the idea.. the dissonance in the chord is acting very much like the irritant you cannot avoid, the one hypnotic idea..the focus on which you let everything else slip under the radar.. and he does this to great effect. As the very tracky supporting parts come in and out effortlessly raw and without any sort of intro. It seems like the title “Rejection Rate” is the joke.. will you be cool and hear it out, will you use it as a DJ to filter out the tech bro who’s only there to hit on your pretty techno friends? Most definitely. Will it get featured on a more insecure techno label than Token, certainly not.
In review, the material is kind of a new departure for Token Records and its label head, Inigo Kennedy. Since it seems that both Kennedy’s recent work and Token have been founded upon this lush and deep passionate techno music. but as with anything, this year and the years coming on are uncertain and there’s lots changing. I personally dig the fearlessness of the choices in this EP both from Kennedy and Jeroen Search. It’s a quality release and it’s artistic as well as challenging on a lot of levels, but the safest bet is letting Jeroen Search continue on with this exploration of what can be done with these trepanation style synths and just how much of a mental mess this EP can make a dance floor.
-Sean Ocean
Link – Bandcamp
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