damien dubrovnik: vegas fountain

Copenhagen-based industrial duo Damien Dubrovnik (aka Posh Isolation founders Loke Rahbek and Christian Stadsgaard) follow up 2013's First Burning Attraction with Vegas Fountain. Rahbek and Stadsgaard have continued to be consistently busy as label bosses but even more so as artists, performing more frequently worldwide and building a reputation for their fierce and powerful live show. They have also continued to hone their craft in the studio and found a working rhythm in which their live performance feeds into the studio work and vice versa. 2014's Patterns of Penetration 7" was a teaser for this developing practice, but it arrives here full-force with Vegas Fountain, Damien Dubrovnik's strongest work yet. In the first couple of minutes of opening track "On It's Double," you get a sense that things have moved forward artistically in Rahbek and Stadsgaard's world. The clear production breathes a subtlety into some of the sonics here that perhaps wasn't revealed through the murk on previous records, heightening a tension that at some points breaks and dissolves into something almost melancholic -- evoked by the reflective landscapes of "Interior 2: See Water Glass" and "Interior 3: Matching Window Blinds." The attack remains however, with the punctuating saw-toothed bass notes and screaming tones of "Interior 1: Upper Lip" (considered "problematic" to cut by the mastering engineer), and the finale of the title-track, which has all the drama and explosive euphoria of their live show. Vegas Fountain is co-released by Alter and Posh Isolation.