∆AIMON - Amen EP (2011) [Tundra Dubs] // Grade: A-

∆AIMON come from elsewhere. Ripped straight from the burning underworld or metallic dystopia, some nightmarish un-place where hell lurks around every corner. The Amen EP, their first for California’s Tundra Dubs, reads like a brooding, nervous tick; guns cocking, dissonance raging, orchestral drone underscoring the glitchy clatter of percussion. It’s paranoid house, you know, if there could be such a thing. Music made by a damaged muse.

But Amen attacks as often as it flinches. Opener “Pure” tears into being like a feral animal, all that foggy ambience erupting into teeth and claws and flesh, only to slink back into the shadows, eyes glowing, with the simmering “Amen” or stuttered “Exu Rei”. And nowhere is that unleash/retreat dichotomy more apparent than on “Maasym”, the most structurally catchy of the record; think Current 93 remixed by Oni Ayhun remixed by Salem. Lofty female vocals soothe the burn of the growling baritone beneath them, the industrial throb of bass moving from scary to scared with one flick of a staccato synth. This is cinematic stuff; tracks that not only soundtrack ∆AIMON’s dystopian landscape but also suggest the dynamic, war-torn characters that populate it. Amen’s world may be an unforgiving place—a terrible elsewhere of fire, blood, trauma—but ∆AIMON make it so absolutely romantic and consuming, so tangible, you won’t be able to tear yourself away. And trust me, damaged or not, you really don’t want to.

- Rue Sauvage