Cenotype - The Hour Before

Cenotype is the brainchild of New Joisy based DJ, producer and Hellraiser series junkie Lenny Bogatch (aka DJ Wintermute) who has since been joined by collaborators Clive Reinhold & Brian Boyle. Cenotype's debut album 'Origins' was released via Hive Records back in 2007, this album was later followed up by the 'Origins Unfold' remix LP in 2009. After three years a new self released EP entitled 'The Hour Before' is finally now out. For simplicity's sake I'll divide this EP in to two halves for reasons mentioned below.

This first half EP gets off to a nice start with the intro track entitled "The Beauty of Night" which is a slow, brooding track with a disturbing atmosphere and sparse vocals that does a stellar job at setting the tone for the rest of this EP. The timing, buildup and execution of this track is simply gorgeous.

The next track "3 AM" starts off with a similar feel to the intro track but quickly veers off in a new direction with a hyper off beat rhythm pattern submerged in several layers of noisy percussion loops and sparse synthwork. On the several occasions I've listened to this track I've hardly noticed that seven minutes and thirty seconds have passed which is a true credit to the arrangement work on this track as it never feels dull or gets lost in repetition.

The final track of the Holy Trinity of this EP is titled "Submerged Aggression" which has a feeling set somewhere in between the previous two tracks. The overall mood on this track is very downcast and to me serves a fitting end to these three tracks, which comprise the first half of a very promising EP. If this is any indicator of how the upcoming album "The Nameless Hour" is going to turn out then I'm looking forward to it already.

The second half of this EP consists of two originals titled "Let the Blade Speak" and "Nubian" which strike me as tracks originally composed during the 'Origins' era as they both heavily resemble that release and if I'm not mistaken have often been featured in their live sets. Distortion junkies, - here's your fix!

And finally there are two remixes, "6 x 8" which is given a workover by east coast kitten lover Cervello Elettronico and "She's dead - Requiem" which is remixed by Intoner. The latter these really adds a nice groove to the material which borders right on the edge of *gasp* Dubstep, and I dig it.

My conclusions:
Cenotype has really forged a unique sound with the first half of this new EP and has moved them into some new territory and slightly away from the heavily power noise influenced direction of the first album. This first half I seriously hope to see more of this type of material in future releases whilst the second half gives us some previously unreleased gems and damn good reworks of some live set favorites. My only gripes - the two halves don't fit so well together and I wanted to see more (burnt) offerings in the style of the first half.

Bottom Line - Me Gusta! And I hope you'll like it to! Oct 01 2012