Different Selves

Following releases on Opal Tapes and Hospital Productions, Italian electronic musician Shapednoise (Nino Pedone) ventured to John Twells' Type label for Different Selves, his most experimental and brutal release yet. While his 2013 album Until Human Voices Wake Us found him smothering jittery beat patterns in hair-raising distortion, Different Selves is far less tethered to rhythm, planting bass eruptions and beat explosions in the frigid, still night air. His mastery of pacing and dynamics is astonishing, and the album keeps the listener teeming with anticipation. Justin Broadrick guests on opening track "Enlightenment," which places heavy tech-step bass on top of swarming synth-strings. "Intruder" crafts a knocking beat out of harsh explosions, breaking midway for a series of bracing electro-shocks. The particularly unnerving "What Is It Like?" commences with brief, staccato slivers of harsh static resembling malfunctioning speakers, which are then fashioned into a fast, furious beat and cut through with piercing, vibrating noise, then eventually joined by a tension-building distorted synth drone. "Heart-Energy-Shape" sounds like a U.K. garage beat drowning in quicksand and electrocuting itself. The album's final two cuts seem less like musical compositions than recordings of violent, noisy machines programmed to destroy. Different Selves is an uncompromising tour de force, and Shapednoise's boldest and most exciting work yet.