bee mask: vaporware/scanops

Bee Mask is a project from Chris Madak, a native of Cleveland, Ohio now residing in Philadelphia, and a vehicle for an intricate and deeply warped sensibility which remains coherent without being beholden to specific techniques or materials, drawing equally on the ecstatic human/machine couplings of 1970s West Coast synthesis, the fractured gloss of sampler concrète, the iridescent thumbprint of high minimalism on the IQ-decimating throb of trunk bass, and the barely-sublimated currents of vertigo and terror that course beneath the most unsettling moments in the canon of home-recorded psychedelia. Editions of his recent work are available on Spectrum Spools and Room40. His new edition for Room40, Vaporware/Scanops charts a new and at times unfamiliar musical universe, a galaxy of complex patterns in constant states of evolving and dissolving. These are pieces that unfold with an unerring organic sensibility that belies the sound-sources used. Like much of Bee Mask's output to date, this is a world of controlled voltage and sequenced chaos. But there is a twist in the form of the unexpected and utterly welcome addition of voice. Over the two long-form pieces, Bee Mask reveals a juxtaposition of deeply electronic materials with a swelling cascade of vocal loops recorded by Autre Ne Veut and Katherine Brady. The resulting sound is quite unlike anything we've heard from Bee Mask before. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Limited vinyl edition of 500 copies housed in a gorgeous matte celloglazed sleeve.

Vaporware (excerpt)