inner8: tetramorph

“Tetramorph,” the new EP from Daniele Antezza’s Inner8, consolidates and expands upon the gains previously made by that project, as well as those made by the acclaimed Dadub production team. Like all previous Antezza productions, it is distinguished by its exactly proportional mix of fluid and ephemeral sound phenomena with rain showers of colossal beats: an alchemical mix which brings us the three-dimensional atmosphere suggested by the Holotone label’s name. “Tetramorph” is no mere reprise of previous recordings, though: with this new work, Antezza again challenges himself to see how his signature style works when it is underpinned by a new set of theoretical or critical ideas, making for a listening experience that is both a thorough examination of existing musical dynamics and a suggestion of a new way forward. Each of the four tracks on this EP represents a different phase in a four-fold process of creative praxis. The first phase, “Self Determination,” lays a thick latticework of beats over Middle Eastern marketplace ambience in a way that recalls prime Muslimgauze, particularly that project’s skill in making the foreign seem intimately near. “Iteration” follows “Self-Determination” on the EP just as it does within carefully planned lives. This 2nd track does not motor ahead with great ease, but instead the tempo drops sharply and becomes mired in a kind of transparent gelatinous substance, strongly suggesting that new iterations often mean new challenges, and hold out no guarantees of progress. By contrast, the following track “Consolidation” glides with an aerodynamic sense of freedom that is realized through a synthesis of rational and irrational strategies (themselves manifested in Antezza’s trademark beat shudders and carefully controlled noise-scapes). The closing chapter, “Aufhebung,” is assisted by Koichi Shimizu and places the listener in a central observation chamber from which all these past dynamic changes can be hazily perceived through a sea of electromagnetic interference. As the philosophical meaning of the title suggests, it provides a kind of paradoxical elevation through deconstruction, or the achievement of a greater sense of clarity even as the sonic dirt accumulates.