Holy cow, what’s broken? Have we taken leave of our senses? Quite the opposite: we know exactly what we’re doing and we sense (sic!) that this album by Lilac Complex (our new addition to the Würfel) will be huge. And we sincerely ask you not to take the title of the album as a call to action – or if you do, then simply delete all the other tracks in your music collection, except for Lilac Complex. Because this release takes no prisoners.
We hear digital-harsh drum’n’bass with a wonderfully outrageous retrofuturistic sound aesthetic. Wait, what does that mean again? Ok, glad you asked. One thing at a time.
„Retrofuturistic“ refers to a vision of the future from times gone by, in this case drum’n’bass from the 90s, as it was celebrated on countless Playstation 1 games. Everything tends to be 12 rather than 32 bit, with small glitches and a certain digital harshness, but getting the maximum sound out of the limited possibilities. Until the chips glow and the computer crashes. Cyberpunk is the word of the hour and the future will be breathtaking. Digital freedom galore.
“Outrageous” is of course an insinuation, because this “looting” in seemingly past worlds of sound is not done here naively reproducing, but with a keen eye and, above all, sharpened ears from the present day. In postmodern arbitrariness, not everything is arbitrary, but only available at the same time and invites you to hunt and collect and then sort in and out. Whatever is needed at the moment.
„Wonderful“ in the end is what has emerged here: a musical time machine. But the journey not only goes back to the 90s but also (yes, why not) into the future. Throw a little industrial, metal, glitchcore and bitcrusher into the maelstrom and let the machine run at maximum until it screeches and gives up the ghost. Only to then beg its owner to please, please not dispose of it. Fortunately for us, her pleas were heeded by Lilac Complex. We can only hope that this old, slightly broken machine (which has only just survived a nuclear explosion) will be started up again in the future. Regardless of whether this future is rosy or rusty.
Briefly about the artist: Lilac Complex lives and works in the south-east of the USA. That’s all that matters at the moment.
