Piteous Gate

Following his acclaimed 2014 Scythians EP (PAN 052EP), M.E.S.H. returns to PAN with his debut album, the opulent and dystopian Piteous Gate. Alongside fellow members of Berlin's Janus collective, behind nights at Berghain and Corsica Studios, M.E.S.H. is known for his futurist approach to club dynamics and production. On Piteous Gate, tightly gridded and sculpted sound juts up against loose-wristed improvisation, automated processes, and collage. Standard club syncopation is twisted by sliding tempos, cut-and-paste time signatures, and indeterminate pacing. It's sound design and compositions are ornate, even courtly, with neo-feudal moods offset by the recurrence of hydraulic hiss and flanger. A synthetic fuel injector revs opener Piteous Gate to life. Drawing from action-scifi film trailers and the sound design of festival trance, it's hardcore synthlines shatter into Optimate - stately, spatial, and whiplash-luxurious, with meandering cybernetic drumming. Thorium sends a slow-motion camera through a melting test reactor; all burnt VSTs and synthetic theorbo and loose drums. The Black Pill smears high-end renaissance sample libraries through arcs of static. In Epithet, temple sewer atmospheres are ruptured by Scythians-style cut-up drums. Jester's Visage indulges a minute-long baroque guitar improv, and territorial youths air their beef in Kritikal & X. Closing out the album, Methy Imbisz is a mechanic rhythm track, and Azov Seepage mingles birdlike granular noises with rusted steel clanging. Recorded in Berlin in winter 2015. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.