Ben Bondy & Exael - Aphelion Lash

Is there a more collectible label than West Mineral right now? Because distros are understandably operating with a limited service right now, our copies of WM's latest only landed today, but it's seemingly sold out everywhere else already... so here we are turning up late with just what you need. So how to explain the popularity? I'm supposing the involvement of ambient poster boy Huerco S is central to that, though there's also something unknowably exotic (/appealing) about the entire stable. Who are these people? How are they connected? When you're making music with such a clear post-humanist bent as Ben Bondy & Exael are here, does that matter? A little shadow goes a long way.  And as it goes, i've no prior knowledge of Ben Bondy's work, though i did very much enjoy the submerged hiss of the Exael record from 2018, which leads me to conclude (perhaps falsely) who is contributing what here. Disjointed post-club ghost in the wires broken down electronics rubs (and dubs) shoulders with ominous vibrations and drones that suggest someone didn't quite put the machine back together right after taking it apart. And on monster closer Six Stepppa, the ghost of jungle past looms large and fearsome. This does compliment the Ulla and Serwed records that came out this year in representing the outer reaches of electronic music, but Aphelion Lash is a more aggressive, angular beast, and suggests that that West Mineral arsenal is far broader than we might have assumed. I don't need to tell you to be quick should you be interested.