Bleep

On his recent Oscillation 1 record Aleksi Perälä delivered some measured and atmospheric techno tracks that were not dissimilar to the work of Stroboscopic Artefacts boss Lucy. Oscillation 2, the second half of Perälä’s Oscillation series for the Clone Basement and Dub imprints, is a more adventurous and erratic collection from the Finnish producer and colundi tonal system advocate.

The tone is set from Oscillation 2’s first track ‘NLL561908699’, a skipping triple-time groove which suggests some experimentation ahead. From here we see Perälä reaching out to touch on styles that are not usually in his wheelhouse. Perälä’s music usually tends towards an optimistic, almost fourth-world sensibility, but this is interrupted on Oscillation 2 by the presence of some unusually intense drum tones. With its crushed-up percussion sounds and needling bassline one can detect industrial, acid and EBM influences on ‘NLL561908700’, and further tracks on Oscillation 2 find themselves shaken up by snares that snap through the mix. There is a little two-step garage to be parsed in the stuttering almost-shuffle of ‘NLL561908702’, and while twinkling synth runs have always been a part of the Perälä sound, their deployment on ‘NLL561908701’ and ‘NLL561908704’ draws more from the caution and paranoia of IDM-techno than is normal for him.

Aleksi Perälä’s Oscillation 2 sees the producer’s never-ending loops spiral out into a variety of soundworlds that he hasn’t visited much before.