Oh, so that’s why “IXTAB” was
tagged all over the inside of my office. Blood Room is half of the duo, the
other half being ovis aurum. I just so happened to discuss a little work of
theirs called Alea
not too long ago. I guess they didn’t want me to forget about them? They
didn’t have to go to so much trouble, what with the spray paint and all.
Dendera Lite is three of
Blood Room’s most recent tracks, remixed a couple times each by a who’s who of
knob twiddlers (a relative “who’s who,” referring to Blood Room’s scene, of
course. Skrillex does not make an appearance). It begins with the ominous
skitterbrainage of “500 Eley Wasp,” moves into the guttural beatscape “Cedar
Tail” (which features Shehta for some fancy vocalizing and chanting), and fades
into the collaboration section with “CQLD,” a dark, industrial headrush with a
recurring sample (I can only make out the word “space” in the sample, but it
sounds pretty cool!). As a three-song EP, Dendera
Lite would satisfy. It keeps going though,
and evolving.
In the hands of other producers, Blood Room’s tracks lose a bit of
their thump, but in the scaling back, they take new shapes and forge new paths.
99LETTERS and A I W A, on “CQLD” and “500 Eley Wasp” respectively, add some
late-night slipperiness to tracks, some rainy city street action where subtlety
overcomes the breakbeats. Subtlety is not Yoshitaka Hikawa’s strong suit, as
the remix of “Cedar Tail” splatter paints all over the industrial canvas,
sounding like an Orange Milk castoff in the process. Also taking a hard left
turn is Boliden, turning “CQLD” into a subterranean bass nightmare. AyGeeTee’s
mix of “500 Eley Wasp” is light as a feather, and Graham Dunning stretches out
the same track to almost ten glitchy techno minutes.
More is more, people, and when you only have three songs you’re ready
to release, you give ’em the remix treatment to keep gluttons like me happy.
And I’m happy. This turned out pretty good in the end, and I have to give
another positive thumbs-up review to this crazy electronic cat. Whoever he is.
If he’s a he at all. Blood Room – can’t even tell the gender from the name.
Now, where’s the turpentine? I’ve gotta clean all these IXTABs off the walls.
--Ryan Masteller
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