Audion: The Pong
Spectral/Ghostly International

Don't expect too many “Dog Days”-like vocal hooks from Matthew Dear's Audion material as The Pong, much like the Kisses EP, is hard-core, acid-tinged techno. “The Pong” relentlessly tweaks morphing bleeps and writhing synths over a fulminating brew of ringing hi-hats and pounding bass drums. The somewhat more merciful “Your Place or Mine” begins laconically with a soft shufflestep until vaporous smears hypnotically strafe the rhythms and threaten to offset their regulated course. The least conventional piece, “The Dog,” does in fact add a vocal element but as a submerged croak that Dear drags through cauldronesque murk of burbling bass lines and insectoid chatterings. Here's hoping the upcoming Audion full-length is as radical as The Pong.

October 2004