Electricity snakes and crackles through the transformers, conduits, stepdowns, and laid lines of modern civilization. Channelled into the walls and drawn out through the outlet, its essential power arrives in a labyrinth of transistors, resistors, and soldered pathways, a nest of interlocked components. And through the subtle tweaking of potentiometers among finely tuned electronics this current is harnessed, leashed, convinced, cajoled into undeniably kinetic techno.
The latest EP of tracks from Berlin’s Torvvo feels like sticking your tongue in the wall socket. Sizzling with all the lethal, awesome power of an elemental force, these five tracks capture the elusive, unrepeatable magic of program synthesis. The subtle dialing in of knobs and the serpentine patching of controlled voltage give the heady synth lines and brain-tickling noise sweeps a once-in-a-lifetime quality - they cannot be recalled, so thank goodness these sounds were being recorded.
From the moment one of “Latch” - the EP’s opener and one of two tracks named for synthesizer functions - we ride a wave of voltage. It kicks off with a buzz that ricochets between the speakers before locking into a deep, undulating hi-hat groove, exactly the type of track that ASMR tingles you into your second wind of dancing. “Relay” follows” with an ever-morphing, insistent 16-beat bassline that calls to mind techno’s Italo ancestors. On the third track, Torvvo pulls the rug just a bit with a sultrier BPM and a stuttering kick-snare pattern that never quite repeats in a predictable pattern as the upper freqs of the hi-hats dissipate into steam, mushroom music. EP highlight “Shuddering on the Substrate” displays some true mastery of primetime-ready techno with a swift, driving drum pattern sprinting under a triplet synth pattern that filters deliciously in and out of the ether. By the time the closing track comes along it feels like something of a victory lap, another unrelenting modular tour de force - crispy, corporeal, & chugging.
Torvvo (also known as Tom Holroyd, originally of Pittsburgh) is intimately familiar with electromancy, having served for some time now as one of the folks behind beautiful synth module makers Verbos Electronics (Mark Verbos, founder of the company, is also a Bunker artist). Holroyd’s work in demonstrating, repairing, and understanding the flow of voltage through electronic components rewards him a deep, intuitive knowledge - he works beyond manuals, patching by vibe, letting the beautiful serendipities bubble up between his computer running CV-optimized DAW Bitwig and the warmed-up modules cooing in his studio.
Both god and ghosts run free in the machines - the tiniest adjustment of a parameter, a shift in the local weather, whether or not the operator is wearing any jewelry, the most minute factor can profoundly alter the lassoed voltage running through the precision synthesizer modules of a eurorack system. With “Substratum” Tom Holroyd proves undeniably that he is one of our finest ghost hunters, communing with the alternating current, cracking open the dance floor.
Mastered by Tim Xavier at Manmade Mastering
Artwork by Andrew Charles Edman
Liner Notes by Ben Seretan
