Matter
Paroxysmal
Kvitnu

Sometime last year(?) Kvitnu relocated and shifted their HQ from Kiev, Ukraine to Vienna, Austria. However, their frequency of releases was not affected by the moving. Paroxysmal is a recording by the Italian Fabrizio Matrone (a.k.a. Fm Chloroform, and Heidseck) under his alias Matter. Welcome to the dark power-electronic technoise world of Matter, Bologna, Italy.

Paroxysmal (which was released some months ago) is Matter's third album for the Kvitnu label, following Solid State (2012) and Biorhexistasy (2013) but Matter has also worked with the German label Le Petit Machiniste as well as the US label Soviet Media Kontrol. Kvitnu states that Paroxysmal can be heard as 'a continuation of the Biorhexistasy LP, or also a big step forward in his harsh atonal grinding sonority explorations.' Paroxysmal is a tough package with 12 tracks clocking in at some 50 minutes. Fabrizio Matrone is some 'macchina umana'. The album opens with the flowing "Fluid" which rather sets the mood for the record. As does "Depth", which takes us deeper into the machinesque soundscapes of Matter. Like it is the beat of the heart of darkness. Paroxysmal is some heavy experimental, electronic, industrial dance-noise, holding warped and distorted sounds and monotonous and pulsating rhythm patterns. Matter/Matrone is said to be (to quote Kvitnu) 'one of the most accurate and advanced distortion manipulators in experimental music today. Like a real acoustic surgeon, he perfectly knows how much wrecking and sonic destruction he can slice into a track to bring it to the perfect form and the most acute shape.' "Surge" is a fine example of Matter's sonic surgery, while "Maar" is one of the more extreme tracks when it comes to monotony of noise-sound. Matter works from the noisier corners of the IDM genre and "Pressure" is of the more fascinating tracks with a steaming, pulsating rhythm-beat where you are awaiting everything to explode. When hearing the music, it is quite easy to imagine some factory floor where thousands of sparks light up the surroundings. "Amplitude" is another of those cool, repetitive tracks going on and on. The slowly gliding and glowing "Exsolution" is followed by the brutal, pounding "Chamber" being almost some tribal rhythm ritual. Matter can smash up and mash-up all the noise and cracked sounds you can imagine, and yet there is a human touch to his compositions. The intensity is high, but deep inside the harsh and cold sound collages there is a melodic heartbeat hiding. Paroxysmal is a musical/rhythmical journey throughout the four classical elements or fundamental states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Earth, water, air, and fire. The travel started with the watery liquid, "Fluid" -- it all ends with the solid remains of fire: "Ash". Ashes, dust, the end. Go check out Matter's 'rhythmic walls, deep and dirty analogue soundscapes' yourself.

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