The third VA release on the Georgian imprint relatively new to the scene Murder Tbilisi explores ominous territory with the fearsome thrill of a retro slasher flick.
Kicking off with gloomy electro vibes courtesy of Soft Crash, the baseline chugging away like a hellish engine, the EP certainly lives up to its name. On Silent Servant’s bone-chilling track Slasher, which sounds like it could soundtrack a grisly chase or terrifying dream sequence in a Wes Craven film, the sharply-edged synth notes creep toward the lethal climax, haunting bellowing horns sealing the fate of some unlucky soul murdered in the nightmare world of Freddy Krueger. The atmosphere of paranoia and impending danger and delivered with cinematic efficacy and a nearly overwhelming sense of impending doom. The retro quality of the sound is evocative of the over-the-top, campy take on horror that thrived in the eighties, music that signals inescapable confrontation with trouble but also winks at the possibility of ultimate victory.
There’s a nice flow energetically and materially between the tracks, the productions all hailing from perhaps different haunted houses in the same interconnected franchise of scream-queen horror. A kind of plot unfolds track to track, the opening menace of the first few creeping, sinister offerings signaling to the excited darkened theatergoers what they are in for. This evolves on the Volvox track “Visions,” with groovily looped voices calling out, distorted beyond recognition behind ghostly undertones of acid wash which precede the heaviest kicks of the EP so far. The rabbit hole goes even deeper as what sounds like it might be the hissed, satanic catechism of a pagan cult uttering the words to summon a dark entity. The dark choir and a groaning, ominous synth play over an echoing broken beat. The release closes on an energized yet almost gothic track decorated with zapping tendrils of 303. This is the scene where the final girl stands triumphant one last time against the forces of darkness, resolute with the urge to survive.
-Winston Mann
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