Oxyd - Liveforms

Swirling layers of slowly washing pads, chirps of warbling electronic manifestations. This is the latest record from the Disharmony side project Oxyd and it has been a curious journey getting here. From the ominously dark debut on Polymorph, 'Deep Core' through the fantastical abyss of their collaboration with Sumad and then off into the land of organic borderline ethno techno, Oxyd are the colorful counterpart to Disharmony's dour, acrid grind. I am told that "Liveforms" is indeed a live record and even though it is beautifully composed there's a rough, ragged edge to what's on it that makes me wonder what a live show from this pair would be like. I can hear elements of all their releases merging seamlessly into new creations through the alchemy Ryby and Sauron perform so readily.

The drifting solitary notes on a placid ocean of sound yet beneath a malevolent heart enviously lies in wait to rise up and consume all that it sees. Much of what is on here begins with an almost optimistic tone but is soon plunged into a decimated land replete with relics, remnants and achingly splendid reminders of how the medium of audio can be made to do things it was not intended for. You see, Oxyd have put out no mere stop gap release to coast on, for all intents and purposes 'Liveforms' is a new album even though some of what you hear will be familiar, it won't be where you expect it to come from. This is a pair of musicians who are doing the unthinkable: they're mixing and mutilating what they've done improvisationaly until it becomes something of a very different nature. They even sneak into their own set and make a couple of appearances as Disharmony. The slowly pounding beats are pushed back behind wailing walls of disturbed synthetic experiments with the results being incredibly vivid bursts of psychological lightning.

There's a lot of revelation in what I hear, the finely honed instincts of master technicians manipulating the emotional response of their listeners. Alien vistas of unknown origin, vast and nameless which sit in silent observance of the stars. Bound down by the conventions of time itself passing, we are witness to their disdain towards us... we for who's lifetimes are nothing but the blink of an eye in the ever expanding and limitless universe. The cold reptilian stare of destiny makes us look away, lower our heads and look for the light switch because on some level we know our place in the order of things. No matter how arrogant our species is, we are temporal beings at best. The elements which shaped us and brought us forth will have no compunction in snuffing our briefly flickering flame out.

Plunged into the luminous dreams of machines, here we become one with 'Liveforms' and I begin to wonder who serves whom... a conductor and it's obliging puppets. Just lie back and drift, you will be found and taken to the place beyond your most lurid imaginings, to the plane of existential discord where time simply stops and all around you are the living, breathing cells of consciousness itself pulling you this way and that. The rip curls and eddy's elegantly presenting as though torn from the silken skin of unseen shadowy lifeforms who have been given license to reveal themselves for as long as this release plays out. Jan 31 2012