Elizabethan Collar - ELIZA B.C (2019)

Ultra-purist electronic brilliance from the elusive Elizabethan Collar, now known as Eliza B.C., following tapes in 2014-15 for the cult (now defunct) Aught label with a debut LP for its spiritual successor, Chained Library

Mesmerisingly ascetic to the Nth, Eliza B.C.’s eponymous LP is a masterclass in stringently stripped down and visceral hardware craft. As with their two handfuls of material for Aught, their follow-up explores devilish permutations of rhythm and texture with a strong taste for variegated repetition and noisy - but not distorted - tones, with results that echo Hamburg’s enigmatic Werkbund crew as much as aspects of Sote or Hecker & Haswell’s music.

In each of the 5 parts the artist gives voice to their machines in the uncanniest ways. The A-side opens with what sounds like a ELpH that crawled out of Coil’s studio to warn of future catastrophe, if only we could fully comprehend its fractal garble, while the proceeding two parts commit to pulsating, keening techno minimalism, and deviant, asymmetric automations that open out with a darkly melodic cadence on the B-side, before ultimately arriving at a freefall of piquant, shatterproof arps with discreet modulations sustaining the suspense to weightless, static, yet urgent effect.