Joseph Morris, aka Druid Cloak, confounds us yet again with his Cryptosystem moniker by referring to his project as “Cryptosystem II” instead of “Cryptosystem I” as he did on his fantastic release Mortalscapes (Entertainment Systems). I was spectacularly angry for all of a fraction of a second, because do you know what that does to my iTunes organization? My MP3 metadata is now all over the place! But this is a review for a cassette, and I won’t bog you down in those details because it does Codek Valtu, Morris’s follow-up to Mortalscapes, in insane disservice. Did I say Mortalscapes was spectacular? Well, ditto for Codek Valtu. That’s the direction I need to be heading.
I covered Mortalscapes in an
Entertainment Systems catch-all
review of their first batch, and I stand by what I said when I said that Morris’s
music “shoots the vastnesses of altered realities and
abstract planes in a sand skiff of his own devising, rendering in 3D what only
has been briefly glimpsed in the mind.” I like how vague and otherworldly that
sounds, and it’s a totally appropriate starting point for Codek Valtu. “Greitooth” introduces a deliberate
faux-industrial/ambient washout, with bare percussion and vocal samples,
conjuring an alien landscape, complete with sand skiff, probably. It’s a great
place to start, and functions as an entry point to the rest of the album.
“Namiki” follows and presents the opposite
extreme of Morris’s palette, an electro/industrial workout that wouldn’t feel
out of place on Wax Trax! Records (another descriptive holdover from the first
review – it’s like I don’t have an original thought in my head…). The rest of Codek Valtu straddles the edges these
two tracks represent. It’s often slow-moving but vibrant, patient, composed, and
rich with detail. It’s equally filled with a sense of adventure and dread, and
all manner of dangerous escapades await your anticipating ears.
For all you electronic experimentalists out
there, if you haven’t checked out Morris’s work, you’re doing yourselves a
disservice. And it’s not hard to get into Morris’s headspace either – it’s
actually quite inviting, not too noisy (for those who don’t like noise) and not
too pensive (for those who can’t stand ambient). I love noise, and ambient, and
I love what Morris is doing in the middle of it all, taking a stand and
planting a flag in the fertile soil that represents his overarching leadership in
the field. Let’s all look to him, our glorious new leader on our glorious new
planet, and follow his lead into the great dawning age of new musical
expression. He’s a man for all people.
…Where did I go just there? Huh, weird. Just
buy the damn tape, you monkeys.
--Ryan Masteller
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