After a six-year-hiatus, NY-based Frank Mokros delivers his fifth Synth-Etik album for HANDS. While in the long grass, he has sensibly updated his rhythm noise sound, making his new tracks appear more aerial, with lot of tracks now sporting a confident, technoid groove and a single-start structure – while retaining the vigorous, brooding industrial sound of previous works. “Function” provides hot goods for clubs as well as a storyline worth of a 67-minute album, moving towards two epic compositions at the end. From white noise over DJ food to bedlam – choose your function!
After a well-received HANDS release as Totakeke, it is about time for a new full length under the Synth-Etik moniker, and the waiting proves worthwhile: The opener “Monsters among us” shows what this album is up to – out of swelling noise drones appears a repetitive beat, upped by the kind of sound trickery that makes DJs scream with excitement. From there it goes, with shuffling rhythm noise (“Function”, “Fallout”), tech-house quotes (“Rapid Succession”), noisy experimentalism “Anonymous”, “Electrotyp”) and sleazy downbeat (“Impact Parameter”). “My Design” travels far, from a dub-tech string sound into seething noise territory, before “Test Zero One” takes us on buzzing 13+ minutes tour – a grand finale!
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