Review: DRMCNT – RX-BOUNCES

BANDCAMP.

Deeply satisfying electronic beatwork here from Rhys Llewellyn (drummer in Hey Colossus), using a minimal hardware setup to plunder the possibilities within sleights of syncopation, indulgent kick resonance and exquisite hi-hat tones. Prime example: “Galdem” starts out with an unworkable lurch of a beat, before a deft swivel of emphasis makes the whole thing come alive as an irresistible shuffling groove. Another: the droning midsection of “Uncase” feigns transition into a swung refrain and hits a startlingly frank, squared-off techno thump instead. The record is a delight for how it moves in the present, but also for its indulgence and dismissal of classic dance music trajectories. For every unabashedly gratifying drop that arrives when you want it to, there’s a moment when Llewellyn baits your expectations in order to obliterate them.

You can hear RX-BOUNCES pressing against the walls of self-imposed restraint, which is wonderful. Textural additions arrive in the form of swooshing white noise and the two-note alternations of machine operation lights, seldom fringing on anything melodic. Regularly DRMCNT resists the momentum that might otherwise drag these tracks ever-higher, and instead of piling on extra percussion or harmonic flourishes, he reduces everything instead. Tracks reset into fundamental pulses just as they seem to be cresting; listener attention promptly snaps back onto the charms of electricity punching holes in stereo space. Oh, and I could listen to that rimshot/woodblock on “Hummdinger” forever.