d edwards: teenage tapes

The Death Of Rave's fifth turn presents a lesser-heard aspect of L.A.-based producer, Delroy Edwards. While best known for making bangers steeped in raw Chicago ghetto house for L.I.E.S and his own L.A. Club Resource, Delroy's Teenage Tapes LP yields eight tracks built with a similarly stripped-down approach, yet with altogether different results owing more to minimal wave, noise, EBM, and black metal. Half of the release documents reel-to-reel and guitar pedal experiments recorded to tape while Delroy was at art college, which he's been saving for the right release. The other half stems from more recent sessions on his SH-101 and drum machine that didn't quite fit in with his pounding DJ tools. Those nascent, freeform noise pieces range from intense, bilious drones to vicious, combustible little buggers nodding to classic Prurient and The Haters, whereas the improvised, rhythm-driven cuts bear comparison with Liasons Dangereuses' EBM blueprints, the motorik momentum of Wold, and the obscure early '90s tape experiments of Tuning Circuits. Committed to worn-out tape in one-take shots over a number of years, it's all testament to the spirit of febrile spontaneity and disciplined dexterity consistent to Delroy's art, an aesthetic acutely at odds with so much anodyne dance music and manicured noise. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton.