[Igloo Magazine]
Dissolved and Nonima (both Scottish producers, now separated by the Atlantic ocean) team up to present Foil Splinters, a cacophony of bent, interchanging and segmented electronics. It’s quite evident that early forms of Autechre, Richard Devine and Gridlock have injected some influence on the overall dynamic of this split release—a collection available as a no-charge download.

Emitting a surplus of melodic audio crunching, distortion and signal processing, both musicians take careful steps to flood the senses with analog-to-digital experiments. Stretching the envelop on post-industrial electro, there’s an amalgamation of low-frequency bass that can’t be ignored. Each artist dives into classic IDM terrain—twisting the formula ever so slightly to a darker tangent. Where Dissolved’s contributions are balanced with an emotional strand, Nonima contrasts these undulating rhythms against an onslaught of robotic slivers. Key tracks from Nonima include the slow punching of “Fankle,” the erratic cyber-industrial of “Mefrac [V2]” and the upbeat contortions of “Seratonin.” Dissolved casts a melodic spectrum of light on the Plaid-induced beauty of “Blacklight Manta Flooder,” the fuzzy harmony swirls of “Ionic Lure” and the ethereal pitch-shifting auroras of “Fermentation.” The tempered, if not rugged style of Dissolved and Nonima create a push-pull effect that is ultimately compressed into disjointed bursts of organized chaos.

Where yesteryear’s template for articulated and semi-emotive electronics has been emulated and reconstructed to great lengths, Foil Splinters is a welcomed retreat. Not necessarily reflecting on the architecture of sound, but rather illustrating a new twist in the fabric of industrialism, both artists have established a logical progression that merits repeat listening. Foil Splinters will adhere to a wide-variety of listeners aiming for a slice of where industrial dance music is seemingly headed.