‘Through The Cortex’, @Terence-Fixmer's sixth solo album and his first on Ostgut Ton, is techno with a voice – or rather multiple voices – guiding listeners through hypnotic, space- and social-themed terrain as a kind of dark soundtrack to darker days. Across eight tracks at a compact but varied 40 minutes, the LP touches on an aesthetic hinted at in recent Ostgut Ton releases, revealing a sonic narrative through noisy, screaming synth/vocal riffs with a jagged, guitar-like post-punk sensibility.
The result ranges from the slow John Carpenter-inspired ‘Escape From Precinct 13’ funk of “Expedition” and the patient yet muscular stomp of “Fury” to the mesmerizing Suicide-like pop of single “Accelerate”, where Fixmer, using his voice as an instrument, chants the track’s ambiguous title in an invocation of systemic change/collapse.
Elsewhere, the story is told with more abstract and wailing vocals like on “Shout in A Black Hole”, or in the warm, entrancing chords floating across the stereo image in ostensibly changing time-signatures on “A Halo Somewhere” – the LP’s uncharacteristically kosmische musik come-down. The track, and ‘Through The Cortex’ as a whole, reflect what can be described as Fixmer’s idiosyncratic take on both techno subgenres as well as the larger pool of electronic music in general. This broad approach translates into a sound that is not only difficult to pin down, but also one that lends itself to multiple listens.
Listen at
Bandcamp: https://ostgut.bandcamp.com/album/through-the-cortex
Apple Music: https://itunes.apple.com/album/through-the-cortex/1432899334
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/7f7IR7dTSF2BNBzavJGKsh?si=VemR9FIaS7KtO7jH9lza5w
Taken from the forthcoming Ostgut Ton album: Terence Fixmer | Through The Cortex [OSTGUTCD44/LP30], out October 12, 2018.
Pre-order album as LP, CD or in digital formats: https://ostgut.bandcamp.com/album/through-the-cortex
All info: http://ostgut.de/ton/record/224
Artwork: JPRaether~PTXX, http://johannespaulraether.net | Layout: Yusuf Etiman
Catch Terence Fixmer on the road: http://ostgut.de/booking/artist/terence-fixmer/dates
