LISTEN: Abstract Mutation – ‘Expert Loner’

Abstract Mutation is James Grant, proprietor of CD-R imprint Vinyl Only Tapes and yet another emigre in the horde of Kiwis presently residing in Melbourne. Grant makes retro-futurist techno that critiques the banality of a hyper-administered, technocratic world at the same time as it indulges in anachronistic tropes from the time of MS DOS, NetScape, 80s corporate chic and clunky computer graphics.

Single ‘Expert Loner’ is composed of garbled rhythms and slightly off-beat tones that sound as though they were generated by an early PC. Like most Abstract Mutation songs, ‘Expert Loner’ is about the interplay between process and improvisation. It’s laid out over a regimented house beat but engaged in a kind of devolution, as some parts fizz out and new elements are scattered in their place. Maybe I’m overplaying my hand here a little, but the EP (titled, fittingly, Fake Keygen) seems to reflect – and kind of joke about – the disorienting and two-dimensional nature of life in a post-internet age. #orly

Despite being picked up by a bunch of very hip international blogs, Abstract Mutation currently has a criminal 85 ‘likes’ on his Facebook page. I guess music like this isn’t exactly going for the heartstrings, but something that manages to be both this cerebral and this light surely deserves attention.

Fake Keygen is out on cassette label 1080P, which is run by Rose Quartz’s Richard MacFarlane. Grant also released the excellent Serenely Skeptical EP as Spelunks just last month, which you can pick up here.

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