The Subdermic - Morphology (2018)

Beginning with childhood experiments using a cheap keyboard sampler & multi-track tape machine. The Subdermic created hypnotic loops, drawing her early influences from the New Romantic & New Wave era. Her teenage years were drenched with early Acid house and later Techno as both a listener and an emergent musician. This cultivated a growing collection of studio equipment from where she began to hone her sound. Interest in the work of Kosmiche pioneers Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream and the expansive, cinematic synth soundtracks of John Carpenter and Lustmord have all informed the Morphology EP, a debut release for The Subdermic on Opal Tapes.

​“Most of my music comes from a definitive idea or theme that I’m obliged to express, it’s like a sculpture, starting from a simple place the whole work ethic grows to become fevered and all encompassing. The most important part of writing & arrangement for me is the process of subtraction or sculpting the piece”

This elegant, learned subtraction is evident here where over the six pieces all surfaces are worn down to reveal subtle detail or to erase the detail entirely. Opening track ‘Ballet of the Sutures’ daubs pointillistic synth against grinding metallics. Leering forwards the piece offers no solution just a see-sawing of trapped acid possibilities and oddly emotive ostinato. ‘Rage 1st Movement’ throws argumentative squeals of overdriven sound through the stereo, formants fold against clusters of noise and crushed breathing sounds. Doors bang and close for good, the whole track is trapped in it’s own smothering air. ‘An Upside Down’ ends the A-side with pure, horizonless, “Phaedra” like ambient built around deep, enwombing Jupiter 8 cycles.

‘God the Mind’ follows suit to start the B-side though this time the orbit is lower and the air thicker. Duelling lines of ever tightening oscillation coarse closer and closer in a devastating minimalism recalling Aube’s brain-scanner works. ‘Southern Sun’ is all delicious Jupiter and Juno in full Carpenter mode, majestic chords crashing against purring filters in a total sunrise of sound. The EP closes with ‘Of Moths and Butterflies’ where sequencers pluck melancholic arps and wings fill with blood for the first time. Future-retro perfection.

Serene and sometimes scarring, minimal but eminently tuneful. This is the music of The Subdermic.