Bleep

As a co-founder of the legendary UK industrial group Cabaret Voltaire, Stephen Mallinder is free to claim influence over an impressive amount of contemporary underground electronic music. With records like 1985’s landmark The Covenant, The Sword And The Arm Of The Lord LP Cabaret Voltaire set a certain standard for dark experimental electronic music that flirted with pop structures that many still follow today. Dais Records is perhaps known foremost for operating with releases that pursue a similar aesthetic. It makes perfect sense then that Mallinder would join forces with the label for his newly minted solo material. After the success of 2019’s Um Dada, Mallinder is back on Dais with his second solo LP entitled tick tick tick.

Working from his lengthy oeuvre, Mallinder is as brazenly sharp as ever with his lyrics across tick tick tick, tackling ecological disaster, art world hypocrisy, and societal collapse with an equally poison-tipped pen. These diatribes are backed by sounds that feel entirely out of time and out of space. While there are quantifiable references to movements like harsh Detroit electro and vaporous Chicago house, Mallinder renders them all in alien textures that distort and disorient. Late album highlight ‘Guernica Gallery’ somehow bridges the gap between early dance music and blown out punk funk, while ‘Wasteland’ could soundtrack the wildest warehouse party you’ve ever stepped into.

Already a legend several times over, Stephen Mallinder continues with boundary-pushing electronic music over four decades into his career.