Igloo Mag
London-based Nigel Truswell (aka Oberman Knocks) finds all the right nooks and crannies to decimate experimental electronics—delivering Conder-Rhyptik for Andrea Parker’s Touchin’ Bass sub-label, Aperture. Fractured noise, glitch, and abstract tentacles featured on Conder-Rhyptik run a parallel trajectory as current-era Autechre, Gescom, Richard Devine, and Mantle of Gets—a kudos to Oberman Knocks for continuing in this vein, expanding the abstractive genre, and forging new pathways.
There are fuzzy twitches and disheveled mechanical slants that bend and contort throughout; all while maintaining an absolute and unique flow front to back. The myriad of glitch-scapes scraping their way through (ref. “Roppstyme Gholer Stryke”) that come to life, grasping at anything in its way, are utterly surreal. Creating nightmarish and untangling rhythms (ref. “Benzontort Fluon Traps” and “Quatrik Nerf Non-Sporr”) that drift and drone, sweep and sway, are elevated by forces unbeknownst to its listeners. Ravaged clicks and mangled machinery aplenty, Conder-Rhyptik
packs a baffling punch to the senses; an impenetrable sonic foray sitting comfortably on the outer edges of an expanding universe; Oberman Knocks’ muddy electronic soup is an adventurous and tumultuous trip. Just have a listen to the closing track “Appradynol Inter-Dyverr” or “Knamleck Forms Gumsun Dack Gumsun” and their cybernetic language to get a glimpse into this strange new world.
Tartine de contrebasse
We know that if we want to find relevant IDM in 2022, we can trust Andrea Parker.
Oberman Knocks had left me a little soft with
Trilate Shift, a little too expansive for my taste in its sound design;
Conder-Rhyptik returns to my loves made of surgical cuts, disarticulated rhythmic structures and artistic style with acute angles. The whole album is cut with a scalpel, with just enough melodic breathing in the background not to go head first into the boring world of technical demonstration. Welcome to the cyber chaos and saturation of consciousness that probably awaits all of us.