Cam Deas and Jung An Tagen twist the time/space axis with corkscrewing, unpredictable, avant garage-techno disruptions in a thrilling debut for Diagonal, including a killer remix by Second Woman.
Colliding the experimental energy of Cam Deas with Jung An Tagen’s computerised techno, ‘Presentism’ opens new wormholes for two leading exponents of avant electronics. Its eight tracks are essentially intent on unravelling techno’s fixation with grids and loops, or an “eternal present”, moving in the footsteps of Mark Fell x Gábor Lázár to render rhythm-driven sorties forever in anticipation of elusive kicks.
In aesthetic, the styles of ‘Presentism’ are recognisable from both artists' respective oeuvres for the likes of The Death of Rave and Editions Mego - yet the rhythmic complexity and urgency is specific to this collaboration. Effectively each cut sets them in hot pursuit of an unknown variable; the kick drum. Generated in skittish, aleatoric patterns, they follow the ball in bewildering permutations of asymmetric funk, encouraging minds and bodies to calculate and intuit their own place in spacetime by means of proprioception.
Although ostensibly chaotic, there’s pure thrillis to be found in the fluidity of their logic between the shearing vortices of ’That (nGridC)’, the metaplasmic head-plong of ‘That(yGridA)’, and the more sensuous space explored in ‘That (yGridF)’, with Second Woman’s remix of ‘That (yGridD#)’ lending extra subtle and supple kerning certain to snag forward-thinking, or should we say, present-thinking, listeners and lovers of upfront, experimental electronics and club music.