Decades Tempest by BD1982
For the third release this year, Diskotopia co-founder BD1982 returns after a two-year absence from full solo offerings with an exploratory mini-LP of psychedelic warehouse soul entitled Decades Tempest.
Deeper digging into personal influences, distilling inspiration from the otherworldly comic artwork of visionaries such as Bill Sienkiewicz and Barry Windsor-Smith, and a methodical exploration of the intricacies of composing on an MPC2000XL were key catalysts in the creation of Decades Tempest.
With some of the tracks being built on sketches dating back to 2003, the results are an epoch-eluding hybrid sound of kaleidoscopic and oscillating sci-fi Krautrock, choppy chrome percussion séances, murky New-Wave synth portraits, malfunctioning MIDI incantations, and metaphysical gothic vocal whispers. An extremely unique and strikingly genre-defying piece of work, the ten tracks comprising this mini-LP are the most honest and organic BD1982 material yet to be released.
The raw machine-jam-session of Chrome20 opens Decades Tempest with a stark phased battery of motorized staccato-arps, industrial-strength drum punches and breathy murmurs recalling the sighting of a floating metallic orb in a Tokyo park on 20th June 2016.
Wind Rider is immediately prominent as we instantly become of aware of BD1982 exploring a new kind of chromatic noise-pop trajectory not found in his previous work. Unrelenting distorted square wave patterns are atonally painted over each other in a manic state of vocoded urgency; the resulting cacophony creating an impression of a turbine powered car-stereo anthem fit for neon-lit night drifts or long stretches across the Siberian tundra.
The washed out cybernetic dub of Madripoor Nights bends and weaves around a strident kind of trans-dimensional exotica, elements of which leak into the broken holographic geography video projections of Sovereign Cities.
We Used 2 B 1 sounds like the complete audio of a train documentary transcribed in full on a Casio graphic calculator, with disembodied vocals and soundsystem-shattering basslines on channels two and three respectively.
The fuzzy safari haze of Soul Jumper offers a brief respite before the ruff & ready polyrhythmic workouts of Last Rites, Catacombs and K-12 Cypher feed dedicated BD1982 followers with more familiar territory, albeit a perfected and perverted variety.
C THRU provides another example of the kind of unacquainted style of composition we are lucky to get to hear from BD1982 here; a marooned 21st century ballad that washes over in waves like the hidden oceans of Enceladus; a serene harbored relief following the tempest of a decade.
Tracklist
| 1. | Chrome20 | 3:55 |
| 2. | Wind Rider | 3:30 |
| 3. | Madripoor Nights | 4:00 |
| 4. | Sovereign Cities | 3:26 |
| 5. | We Used 2 B 1 | 4:33 |
| 6. | Soul Jumper | 2:38 |
| 7. | Last Rites | 3:50 |
| 8. | Catacombs | 3:48 |
| 9. | K-12 Cypher | 1:37 |
| 10. | C THRU | 3:17 |
Credits
License
All rights reserved.
BD1982 is a Tokyo-based producer who co-runs the Diskotopia label with A Taut Line. In 2021, Diskotopia’s 10th anniversary year, he released the seminal Distance Vision album – marking a drastic development in musical direction(s) drawing on dub, new-wave, industrial, and outsider pop. Ritual sound studies in warehouse soul.