exoteric continent: referendum

Barcelona's Exoteric Continent follows cassette drops for Opal Tapes and Second Sleep with his first ever vinyl release. Exploring ascetic techno and electronic noise, this vinyl edition combines both of his Referèndum tape volumes, originally released on Hospital in 2014, on one fine slab. Something of a relative outsider in the balearic climes of his home city, Arnau Sala Saez pushes an intense, probing sound, both with his own music and via closely associated cohorts N.M.O., or Eric Frye and Helmer, who've released on his brilliant Anòmia label. With Referèndum, Exoteric Continent draws the listener into the awkward spaces and styles around the shifting, jagged borders of techno and noise, using drums, percussion, magnetic tape, and synthesizers to outline nine atonal and enigmatic silhouettes. The work ranges from the creeping slow-techno misshape of "Percentages" thru the sagging chamber feeling of "Posicions" to the Soisong-like gamelan tones of "Transició" and the kinky industrial swing instincts of "La Mirada Llarga"; he mixes rugged structures with stranger, keening electronics in the insectoid logic of "Autoritat" and the rubbled electro-acoustic texturhythm of "Agrupació Civil" to forge a fractious, unstable brace of noise techno that sits somewhere between classic Pan Sonic and his Hospital lablemate Alberich. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Edition of 500.