Exterior - Holocene (2024)

Holocene is the second album from Edinburgh’s Doug MacDonald, aka Exterior, a project originally borne out of a desire to go beyond traditional rock band tropes in favour of synthesis, which introduced the startlingly new voice of a solo performer and electronic musician.

Harnessing an understanding of the power of live drumming and years of finely honed performance skills (something of an aberration in dance music), debut EP Plagued Streets Of Pity (2019) and debut album Umbilical Digital (2022) embraced the dance floor in the most visceral way. Abstracting the human element via heavily processed vocal samples, beats and guitars, as well as modular synthesis, MacDonald’s primary objective was the music’s physical impact: intense, often dense productions that would make you move, toying with tempos as much as sonics.

Needless to say, Exterior’s incendiary live performances have been causing shockwaves wherever he performs. And yet, there has always remained a deeply introspective element at play as well…