Clear Vinyl
First released on cassette last year, Christos Chondropolous' most recent collection of self-styled 'Athenian Primitive' now makes its way to vinyl. What Athenian Primitive actually means is somewhat of a broad church, seemingly at the whims of whatever is currently inspiring Chondropolous and what he can draw from his Greek heritage. His previous outing on 12th Isle was, for want of a better word, more cosmically orientated, perfectly suited to the fourth world drift that shapes that particular label. Relics is notably more animated and eccentric, and the songs a lot more concise. The ideas, though, spill in all sorts of directions. At times hyper-rhythmical in a way that recalls the more busied Sakamoto-derived experiments of Richard D. James, others fractured and ethereal in a way redolent of the contemporary school of electronics, ala Pontiac Streator, Ben Bondy et al. And then, it's something else entirely, a track like Sacrifice a hyperreal extension of the ethno-industrial approach of, say, Muslimgauze, while Cyber Crust is, well, essentially Raspberry Bulbs inspired black metal mucilage. A very mixed bag from an artist moving in intangible directions. Funny how Relics sounds a lot like a very odd incoming future.
