Neen takes you there with a deep and dub-infused mini album “Unplanned” full of six fantastic worlds to get lost in on his release for Joton’s Newrhythmic label.
Martin Pistacchi, based in Buenos Aires and better known as Neen, has previously been a feature on Semantica, Hayes, and Faut Section. He makes a landing here on Newrhythmic. His previous stylings and releases on the aforementioned label have all been deep and angular and even somewhat abstract techno. This outing seems to be going for something that is a bit more dub techno-inspired and uses a great deal of hypnotic elements to create a vibe intensity that’s giving ‘Mike Parker toned vibes’ with his expert use of reverb as tonal colors.
A perfect example of the deft reverb use is in the way the synth plucks in “Au” create tension that really never resolves, and it’s always throwing you up in the air again each hit. Your mind doesn’t know what to do with this, so you just shut down and succumb. It’s a breathtaking experience.
Another standout would be “No top” which presents to us a classic techno loop that gives the feeling of Terrence Dixon’s “Midnight Hours”, but it’s all washed out, and again, since the reverb tails are so long, the highest notes away from the kick and its tonic are just stuck hanging like a carry. There are some additional dissonant tones in a possible polymeter, as well as sci-fi sound effects singing in the atmosphere to keep things interesting, because the top end is completely removed. The only crispness in the track is the ‘beater’ on the kick, and the Chicago styled downbeat claps that come in now and again near the end.
Another hero on the release would be “Offsignal,” which is certainly dub techno coded, but it’s in Neen’s preference for long tailed reverb that really makes what would be a slamming techno track into a washed out colorful track that highlights the noisy chord pairings as they are filtered. It is quite lovely to dive into once you focus on these timbre shifts.
The whole release is quite stellar, but the tracks mentioned certainly outline the main ideas present… namely, that really excellent use of reverb. In some ways, it can be looked at as a cheap way to make a track; good reverb just sounds amazing on anything. But Neen’s release here is proof that you really have to listen to what’s really going on. Be it pulling out the nuances in a chord, or creating this intense shift towards the dominant side of the keyboard that never resolves, or washing together streaks across the sonic canvas as a long standing harmony all their own, Neen is certainly picking up on deeper timbre ideas than the casual listener.
To be there with him as it happens and it’s coming together is quite amazing. For the amount of unique ideas that have come together here, it surely marks one of the most outstanding and original releases this week.
-Sean Ocean
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