Like two celestial objects orbiting each other, Bary Center’s music is massive and constantly in motion. Mark Williams, Bary Center’s alter ego, sets his controls for the heart of the sun and blasts into cosmic bliss throughout his Speaker Footage tape Stop Believing, a fulcrum, a point of balance where electronic dance music serves as the central point around which all matter revolves. It’s an absolute miracle of physics. Hear that, you scientists? I said “miracle”!
But miracles require belief, and Bary Center says, “Stop that, you
guys! All that matters is the lights and euphoria, the motion and the rhythm.
Let’s get off this stupid planet and manipulate the universe with our minds!”
I’m assuming that’s what he’s saying to someone, maybe his own subconscious, as
he throws some wicked shapes in his own bedroom while composing his next great
techno opus. Because that’s what Stop
Believing is, ten tracks of immense dancefloor fodder that burst into color
behind your closed eyelids as you lose yourself in ecstasy.
Sometimes recalling Underworld, other times Orbital, and even Aphex
Twin here and there, Stop Believing plays
like a tourism film for the heyday of excellent and intelligent electronic
beatmakers. And it’s no wonder that the artists I just mentioned had some
modicum of mainstream success – like them, Bary Center fills these tunes with
accessible hooks and inventive ways to package 4/4 rhythms to appeal to the
raver (not me) and the internalizer (me) in equal measure. It’s a deft trick,
and one that he’s continuing to pull off – see his rapidly growing discography
featuring tapes on Crash Symbols, Skrot Up, MJ MJ Records, and others. Right
now, throw down your baggage and hit play, lose yourself and Stop Believing. Space magic is
happening.
--Ryan Masteller
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