Reactant - Initial State EP

[Trance2MoveU]

 

Artist: Reactant

Title: Initial State EP

Label: Uroboros Records

Date: January, 2011

 

1. Cultivated Abductee (135 BPM)

2. Ramble On! (137 BPM)

3. Tangled Brain (135 BPM)

4. Gloom Conclusion (132 BPM)

 

Australian Dave Sharman releases this 4 track EP with the promise of tracks that will "rock the dance floor from dusk to dawn." See I didn't get that. Sure I'm older and the idea of partying from dusk to dawn makes me tired. Not to mention the hell I would catch from the wife for being out so late. But maybe you guys could handle it. Just like the promo says it is some dark progressive beginning with the minimal style of Cultivated Abductee. Basically a simple track with a bouncing bass line and effects layered over spoken samples. Atmospheric yes. Rock the dance floor? Maybe we have different definitions.

 

See, Bluto gets it.

 

Ramble On! "It's hard to come by honest work when the whole world's against ya."

 

continues with the bubbling cyber atmosphere and it sounds great. I see humming machinery with glowing LED's as servos perform scientific tasks. Not very fast or rocking as this is an atmospheric churning rather than an ass wiggling track. How the f*ck would you dance to this anyway?

 

Yep, as awkward as I imagined.

 

Tangled Brain- With the same undulating bass sounds this one brings some eerie choir pads and they sound like some f*cked up Children of the Damned. It bubbles with evil purpose that hums with delicious darkness, but is far from rocking anything. It is also on the minimal side choosing not to overload the brain with layers.

 

Gloom Conclusion- "That's what I'm afraid of."

 

See tracks 1,2, and 3.

 

Methinks the person in charge of the promo text was a little...distracted.

 

That's it, keep huffing. I'm sure everything seems much clearer now. This was dark but it neither rocked or was groovy. But don't take that to mean it sucked, because it didn't. It's a cold autumn night when all the kids should be in bed and God knows what is roaming the forest looking for it's next meal. Very atmospheric while being simplistic at the same time. Enjoyable.

 

Ektoplazm

 

Mdk

[BraneFreeze]

I recently stumbled across this producer, and ended up acquiring most of his output to date: Initial State EP, Alternate Source EP, and three tracks available on compilations. (You can find about half this material on Ektoplazm.) Based on only a few brief descriptions and samples, I was hoping for a sound somewhat similar to Merkaba, another Australian.

 

In general, I found many of the Reactant tracks somewhat monotonous, with occasional pointless commentary. ("Earth Nerds" on the Alternate Source EP was humorous.)

 

I ended up liking two tracks, "Kinemortophobia" and "Outback Trip", both on compilations and both essentially instrumentals. The other stuff was OK, but no more. Reactant shows promise but he's not there yet.