LARMO - Alarm [Zoharum - 2024]Alarm is the first full-length release from LARMO- aka Poland’s Mirosław Matyasik, who has been active in his country scene since the early 2000’s dabbling in genres such as IDM, industrial, and electro-experimental fare. The album is a twelve-track affair which focuses on hard-hit, nastily brooding, at points noise-edged beat-based music. The release appears on Poland’s Zoharum- coming as either a CD or vinyl release, I’m reviewing a promo CD version of the album- which sees the disc being presented in a red/ grey/ black coloured slip which takes in an illustration of the neck/ head of a humanoid/ robot figure covered in wires & steel wrapped cables, with a black computer screen featuring red warning texts. And much of the vibe here is edgy/ taut Sci-fi/ dystopian future- so it fits the artwork
Things kick off with the title track- which brings together stabbing to coarsely slamming bass synth tones, taut mechanical beat punches, and greyly swirling to piecing swipe-bound tonal detail. There’s a smashing ‘n’ buzzing bass line, hissing ‘n’ smarting beat work, and muffled/ buried shouty female vocals of “N.B x N.N. We have the brooding ‘n’ nastily bass stabbing meet galloping-yet-uneasy tone sear of “Separator”.
In its second half, we move from cut-up/slightly harmonic pipe organ purr, slamming bass ‘n’ beats, and crudely gobbled male vocal of “Komunikat”. Or the hissing ‘n’ smashing beat meets booming bass throbbing, and moody textual shift of “Tech(Nic)".
If you after snapping ‘n baying beats, broodingly buzzing and slamming beats then Alarm is the album for you!. Roger Batty
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