DC_33.33 “Vela Abridge” (Already Dead Tapes)


Digital terrorizer DC_33.33, aka Dave Gabriel, comes from Chicago, and Vela Abridge is his utter maelstrom of an initial release for Already Dead. Although this isn’t his first Already Dead rodeo – Gabriel does happen to be half of Imelda Marcos, whose superb Tatlo (2019) I gushed over right around here somewhere. We’re happy that he’s back, still releasing stuff, even if it sounds NOTHING like Imelda Marcos. As DC_33.33, Gabriel specializes in confrontational electronic mayhem, somewhere on the Autechre spectrum of computer and synth music, but louder. Probably, anyway – I’m going with louder.

There’s not a second on Vela Abridge where I feel that my head is made of skull and muscle and filled with brain; instead, I get the sense that it’s become steel and hollow, its only occupants a few ball bearings pinging around in there at very rapid speeds. The pings register in my ear canals somehow, and the tones shift and change depending on the speed and angle at which the bearings collide with the walls of my steel skull. If I let myself think about it, a rhythm or pattern tends to emerge at points, only to devolve back into chaos again for a while. This process of pattern/chaos repeats, until the entire thing seems like a pattern.

It may sound like a daunting challenge for you to allow these objects to whip around at high speeds inside your head, but I recommend giving it a try – I certainly enjoyed it. I’m also an insane masochist, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.

(I’m kidding. About everything.)