- After a series of decidedly dark, leftfield singles, Black Merlin (AKA George Thompson) explored the moonless countryside of Bali for this year's excellent synthesis of field recordings and Demdike Stare-type eeriness, Hipnotik Tradisi. While most of the album had a type of twilight mood, Thompson caps his 2016 with a slew of varying singles on three labels: Boysnoize, Jealous God and Danny Daze's Omnidisc. For the latter, Miami-based label, "Resistance" is a pounding A-side that moves out of the jungle and toward the club. The bracing slice of black-and-blue techno has all manner of hissing white noise slashing across it, as Thompson keeps the mood evenly pressurized.
The B-side indulges the more experimental side of Black Merlin. On the nearly 11-minute "Circuits," a thump as menacing as the A-side is now slowed to a migraine-like pulse. Working with that throb, Thompson unspools electric squalls, crackles, whirrs and neck-prickling high frequencies. But once it begins to sound like a hodge-podge of electrical noise, he drops a sawtoothed synth line on the mix. It doesn't quite change the track's trajectory, but rather anchors all of the smaller sounds.
TracklistA Resistance
B Circuits