Spanish Techno heads Psyk and Orbe were hopping back and forth between each other’s studios for creative, improv jam sessions with their respective gear which eventually led to a more refined and polished work that leads us to their new Non Series release, “Tagma Sessions”—a cerebral, hypnotic implantation of Psyk’s work into the relatively deeper and groovier sounds of Orbe.
If you’ve been following Psyk’s curation of the Non Series as of late, you’ll have the distinct sensation of your head being truly messed with on a deeply sonic level. Whatever Psyk’s been smoking, it’s truly something different. The sounds coming out of the label alongside Psyk’s vision provide this bizarrely deep and dissociative state beyond any previous definition of Techno or even music in general. Combine this with the deeper, heady hypnotic grooves from Orbe that have been featured on Axis, Token, and Mote Evolver, and you get a double dose of mind-bending skullduggery.
Right out of the gates on this “Tagma Sessions” EP you have “Untitled” set the tone for this clearly. Orbe’s deep atmospherics sets up a kick-and-hat pattern that’s somehow instantly dissociative with only three elements. While you’re trying to unpack that, the track evolves and the ambient pattern grows and evolves with high resonant trills and rhythmic synth fills serving as blurry demarcation lines for bars. Everything in the track is so highly hypnotic that it’s too much to take; your mind is exhausted as if it’s undergone some serious nitrous oxide anesthesia.
Similarly, the onslaught brought on by “Tagma” has the nonstop FM bell tones running strong and incessantly as if it were a visceral threat to your senses. One wonders if Psyk and Fernando are just experiencing the world on a highly desensitized level, much like how someone who is a noise musician can find subtlety and nuance in smashing chains on cymbals, or a horror fan who just yawns at on-screen death. It’s still very much Techno, and the elements are presented in a very Techno sort of way but with an intensity that retains a groove-based format.
After a clanging bash, “OSI” gives us another taste of the previous tracks’ formula but with an overpowering LFO wobbling synth right up in your face within the room like a pacing tiger that leaves you punch drunk by associated experience. Last up on the track is “Liquid Drop”. This provides a cooldown from the experience you’ve just had on listening to these prior tracks, but it refuses to let up on the iron grip these two have had on your brain stem for the last hour or so. Psyk and Orbe are definitely still in control.
Now let’s forget for a moment how you consume music on your day-to-day, and let’s pretend it’s your sainted Irish grandmother with a giant stack of Meyer speakers, you might consider these tracks as a kind of sonic warfare. And that’s where you’re correct. This music borders on a psyops-level of hypnotic control of your mind. And for the experience, it will leave you giddy and buzzing if you hear this on a large system. As a Techno fan who has thought they have heard it all, this is definitely some next-level shit. As a person who’s studied music theory, this music is as unprecedented as hearing Square Pusher for the first time. And that’s exactly where music should be.
-Sean Ocean
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