Bleep

“A bunch of bits and bobs from a while back” is all that was said of Brainwaltzera’s surprise EP drop back in 2020, a deceptively nonchalant description for the epic synth palettes and highly expressive soundplay contained within. Three years later, Film have given these tracks another round, with a slightly shuffled tracklist taking us from quaint sonic paintings of the electronic countryside to corrosive industrial abstraction.

Royal Wavetable Mellodies & Old TDKs is interesting to revisit after the release of Brainwaltzera’s second album ITSAME in 2022, taking us away from the club weapons and serene atmospherics into a world more structureless and experimental. ‘FMsquared’ floats into view, melodically rich with wobbling vibrato and iridescent flashes, before changing wind with trembling mellotron chords. ‘copperfeel’ shifts from bronze muffled whispers to razed, green acid synths, foreshadowing the metal of ‘WSsquared’ where sighing, rounded pads are lit up by a sparking mechanical rhythm. Bitcrushed crashes create friction between silver and steel, fading till they knock delicately on the ears, before the track’s second half gets lost in the shimmer of trickling electricity and bass synth organ keys.

‘good endgar’ opens on a similarly languid note overturned by beats like thousands of hailstones weathering down, then filtered through ice cracked by pickaxe rhythms. A screaming razor-edged siren ends this otherwise idyllic moment with a warning, leading to the closing ‘LANsqape4’ where thuds resonate and arpeggios climb like rockets before visceral factory-sourced percussion forms an orchestra of power drills, jackhammers, and buzzsaws in a menacing display of audio alchemy.

Brainwaltzera proves his prowess in sound design yet again with tracks both picturesque and pummelling.