Renegade Methodz boss Endlec returns to Kazerne with an EP full of cold, blunted cuts on his most recent release “Pitch Black Realm.”
It’s been a bang-up end-of-year release schedule for Bas Mooy, Mord, and the Kazerne sub-label. Endlec’s offering helps continue the trend here with some creatively balanced tracks with a purposefully dispassionate mood. When talking about techno, we also have to acknowledge one of its core principles… these songs aren’t exactly love ballads or stadium rock anthems.. they present themselves as an antithesis to that world. In an oversimplified statement: it’s techno on; feelings off.
Endlec captures this idea perfectly. This year, with his other releases on his own Renegade Methodz imprint, it’s been more of the same in different guises. A lot of the top end was shaved off to highlight a strong and grooving low mid-range, often mixed with a call-and-response upper mid, while the sub and kick provide a hard bed for it all to stand on. A good deal of the tension in these tracks is taken care of with quirky resonant synths like in “The Process” and “Portal” or like in “Critical Pressure” and “Time Splitter”. There’s some occasional reliance on cymbals to carry the higher levels of intensity along. Yet, even those remain subdued throughout the release, and their resonances are firmly ducked out, creating for a calm, noisy top end to keep things flowing.
One of the better ideas across this “Pitch Black Realm” release is when you’re sifting through the layers and looking for the stereo placement… you realize a lot of things seem static but are moving through the stereo field, like modulating Haas panning techniques, but also have filtered elements playing against tremolo modulation. “Portal One” is a perfect example of this. The strong, low-mid ducked reverb off the kick really sets up the excitement of the track, while the quirky synths serve as curiosities for your mind to ponder while they swim in this noise reverb soup. Your mind latches on to them, and then you start to roll with their movements in the stereo field. Which, in turn, totally distracts you from this intensity going on down below as the kicks drop. You’re then woken up to the idea that ‘damn this really is hitting hard.’ Which makes it such a satisfying experience overall.
Again, this idea is reiterated in several states, which makes it interesting to see how Endlec tries to tackle a similar problem and slightly evolve it. You can hear the attempts at expressing this idea, and there’s always something new and fresh there. What is left is up to you to discover.
“Pitch Black Realm” is a great release from Endlec and the Kazerne label. It would be well worth it to get deep into the catalogs of Endlec and Renegade Methodz. If you’ve not been on the Kazerne tip, you’ve been missing out.
-Sean Ocean
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